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In 2017, Walmart launched a pilot project that gave the impression that some of its old school brick and mortar stores looked like futuristic test benches. The chain has started testing robots that can scan shelves to make sure the items are at the right price and in stock, a test run in 50 stores.
This year, these robots will have been deployed in 350 Walmart stores, making them an increasingly familiar presence in store aisles, as shoppers look for the brand's cheapest deals.
In addition, Walmart – which is also the largest retailer in the world, making this project an interesting project to follow – announced just a few months ago that it will offer floor cleaning robots in a little less half of its 4,700 stores in the United States. . In addition to inventory analysis robots, there will also be robots in approximately 1,700 stores that will automatically scan boxes for unloading delivery trucks so they can be sorted on treadmills.
If all of this sounds incredibly dystopian to see robot "workers" rubbing shoulders with customers, well, we can not say that Walmart did not warn us.
"The general trend is that automating some tasks gives employees more time to do something they find satisfying and to interact with our customers," said General Manager Doug McMillon last year.
You can imagine where it's going. Unfortunately, Walmart's chief financial officer, Michael Dastugue, said in a conference call with analysts, "As we evolve, some jobs will disappear." The efficiency generated by automated robots seems to be one of the reasons for this expectation.
As we have said, this is an interesting project to watch, partly because of the interest it has in robotics for the general public. Consider: About 90% of the US population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store. Squeezing an increasingly heavy labor force in robotics should also allow Walmart to save a ton of money. This is partly because of its size – and the size of its vast stores.
When you realize how big its supercentres can be (178,000 square feet), you can imagine how expensive it is to operate one, in terms of employee compensation and other costs. In 2018, Walmart spent more than $ 2 billion on store refurbishments, money that was spent because the retailer realized that their stores had to change, as did the economic forces around them.
Image Source: April L. Brown / AP / Shutterstock
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