LOS ANGELES — Along with browsing shoppers and bustling employees, grocery store customers in California now may also encounter a robot roaming the aisles, according to a recent report.
Its name is Tally and it's been spotted at multiple Ralphs locations, an expansion of a pilot by parent company Kroger that started in the Midwest, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Simbe, the company behind Tally, touted the device in a recent press release as "the world's first inventory robot," with the company working to "continuously capture what is happening inside retail locations: from inventory availability and product location to prices, promotions, and merchandising conditions."
Simbe told the Times that the robot "is designed to understand shelf conditions, not identify or track humans."
Not everyone is convinced, with Ralphs shopper Ricardo Valadez telling the newspaper, "I don't know why; I felt that it was following me."
Employees have concerns as well, according to the Times.
"Checking shelves, identifying out-of-stock products, and maintaining store conditions are all areas where our members perform important work every day," UFCW Local 770 President Kathy Finn told the newspaper.
Simbe has over 3,000 autonomous units under contract, the company announced last month. In addition to Ralphs, the robots are in use at Bristol Farms in Santa Monica and have been seen nationwide at Kroger, Lowe's, BJ's and more, the Times reported.
The global retail automation market is projected to more than double in value in less than a decade, from $31.21 billion in 2026 to $77.36 billion by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights.
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