Kmart to introduce 'self-navigating' robots to make customers' shopping experience much easier!
- Replies 9
First, they made their way into our homes by replacing our trusty vacuum cleaners. After that, they made their way into our workforce by replacing the wait staff at restaurants. Now, it seems like they have taken over our shopping malls as well, as they make their way into retail stores!
Kmart shoppers, be prepared – a new type of store employee will be roaming the aisles of your neighbourhood Kmart soon.
Today's announcement that Kmart will introduce a new automated workforce into its stores represents a significant step forwards for the robotic uprising. All hail to our robot overlords!
Of course, we're just being a little tongue-in-cheek here, folks. No army of robots is invading us anytime soon (we hope).
Kmart locations across the country will soon have "self-navigating robots", but don't worry – they're only programmed to assist the customers and help the store with inventory control and stock replenishment.
Kmart's plans for a new robot workforce were captured in a bizarre video. Credit: TikTok/@riakia82.
The high-tech robots, known as Tory, are anticipated to arrive in the majority of Kmart stores by the end of 2022, according to Chief Customer Officer Lil Velis.
Velis said that the new robots will work every day and will help improve the customer experience.
"At Kmart, we are always looking for ways to create a better experience for our customers," said Velis in an interview with a news outlet.
"We know that a key customer pain point is product availability. Tory is Kmart’s self-navigating robot that counts our inventory through RFID (radio frequency identification) technology in-store overnight, on a daily basis."
"When we have an accurate view of stock we can help more customers get the products they want, when they want it, whatever channel they are shopping with us. We are currently in the initial roll-out phase and will have Tory in the majority of our stores by Christmas this year."
One of the brand new robots can be seen in the below video uploaded to TikTok, which was taken at the Kmart in Burwood, Sydney. The tall, slender robot is believed to be a prototype of the robot workers that will patrol the aisles of retail stores to assist customers during their shopping.
The robot in question is wearing a sign that says, "Hi! I’m Tory! Don’t mind me, I’m just counting stock on our shelves. No need to move out of my way, I’ll go around you!"
A legion of these robots have reportedly already been distributed across the country and are ready to be activated (nothing foreboding about that…), according to several comments under the TikTok video, which has received over 120,000 views as of this writing.
"Wait, yours goes around while customers are in the store?! Ours wait until closing!" said one store employee. "We have it in the back of our store waiting to be used," added another.
But what do Kmart customers say about the idea of a robot roaming the store aisles? While many have admitted that they can't wait to watch Tory in action, others aren't as enthusiastic about it.
"That would be so cool!" wrote one user in the comments. A second user disagreed, though, saying the robots are "seizing control" and they would be "scared" if they ever saw one in their local Kmart.
What are your thoughts, folks? Do you think having robots in the aisles of a store could help both the employees and the people who shop there? Or do you think, like self-checkouts at supermarkets, this is just another way to put more humans out of work? Let us know in the comments!
Some futurists, like Elon Musk, speculate that in the future, robots will be able to perform just about every conceivable task more effectively than people. Does this indicate that there will be no human workers in the future but only robots?
For a more in-depth discussion on the subject, take a look at the video that has been provided here below:
Credit: CNBC International.
Kmart shoppers, be prepared – a new type of store employee will be roaming the aisles of your neighbourhood Kmart soon.
Today's announcement that Kmart will introduce a new automated workforce into its stores represents a significant step forwards for the robotic uprising. All hail to our robot overlords!
Of course, we're just being a little tongue-in-cheek here, folks. No army of robots is invading us anytime soon (we hope).
Kmart locations across the country will soon have "self-navigating robots", but don't worry – they're only programmed to assist the customers and help the store with inventory control and stock replenishment.
Kmart's plans for a new robot workforce were captured in a bizarre video. Credit: TikTok/@riakia82.
The high-tech robots, known as Tory, are anticipated to arrive in the majority of Kmart stores by the end of 2022, according to Chief Customer Officer Lil Velis.
Velis said that the new robots will work every day and will help improve the customer experience.
"At Kmart, we are always looking for ways to create a better experience for our customers," said Velis in an interview with a news outlet.
"We know that a key customer pain point is product availability. Tory is Kmart’s self-navigating robot that counts our inventory through RFID (radio frequency identification) technology in-store overnight, on a daily basis."
"When we have an accurate view of stock we can help more customers get the products they want, when they want it, whatever channel they are shopping with us. We are currently in the initial roll-out phase and will have Tory in the majority of our stores by Christmas this year."
One of the brand new robots can be seen in the below video uploaded to TikTok, which was taken at the Kmart in Burwood, Sydney. The tall, slender robot is believed to be a prototype of the robot workers that will patrol the aisles of retail stores to assist customers during their shopping.
The robot in question is wearing a sign that says, "Hi! I’m Tory! Don’t mind me, I’m just counting stock on our shelves. No need to move out of my way, I’ll go around you!"
A legion of these robots have reportedly already been distributed across the country and are ready to be activated (nothing foreboding about that…), according to several comments under the TikTok video, which has received over 120,000 views as of this writing.
"Wait, yours goes around while customers are in the store?! Ours wait until closing!" said one store employee. "We have it in the back of our store waiting to be used," added another.
But what do Kmart customers say about the idea of a robot roaming the store aisles? While many have admitted that they can't wait to watch Tory in action, others aren't as enthusiastic about it.
"That would be so cool!" wrote one user in the comments. A second user disagreed, though, saying the robots are "seizing control" and they would be "scared" if they ever saw one in their local Kmart.
What are your thoughts, folks? Do you think having robots in the aisles of a store could help both the employees and the people who shop there? Or do you think, like self-checkouts at supermarkets, this is just another way to put more humans out of work? Let us know in the comments!
Some futurists, like Elon Musk, speculate that in the future, robots will be able to perform just about every conceivable task more effectively than people. Does this indicate that there will be no human workers in the future but only robots?
For a more in-depth discussion on the subject, take a look at the video that has been provided here below:
Credit: CNBC International.
.png){kind=icon}
