Lowe’s was an early adapter of robotics tech, introducing an autonomous retail service robot dubbed LoweBot in 2016.
"Our Arizona pilot program confirmed the flexibility and benefits provided by autonomous vehicles and how much customers are open to more innovative solutions."
Yael Cosset, Kroger's chief digital officer
Kroger and robotics company Nuro have been expanding their autonomous grocery delivery service, bringing it to Houston in April.
“Robots enable warehouses to scale operations up or down as required while offering major efficiency gains and mitigating inherent challenges associated with labor and staffing.”
Nick Finill, senior analyst at ABI Research
Kroger has committed to building 20 customer fulfillment centers, powered by Ocado, to accelerate its fulfillment capabilities.
“Bringing robotics and A.I. from a research lab to the sales floor has been a very exciting journey, and we were thrilled by the customer response in our pilot stores."
Nicholas Bertram, president, Giant Food Stores
Walmart's rollout of 1,500 autonomous “Auto-C” floor scrubbers were in addition to those already in use in over 200 stores.