Store-bot quality.

A couple of years back my preferred supermarket introduced Smiley for a trial run. As I noted at the time, Smiley was a robot, intended to scoot around the aisles at will, offering Snickers and other unhealthy snacks for purchase to shoppers like me who were vulnerable to impulse buys and maybe feeling a bit peckish. At the time I accused it of being a candy-wielding Dalek, but that was unfair. And inaccurate: Dr. Who fans know that Daleks, like some candies, are hard on the outside but soft in the center. Not really robots, in other words. 

Well, the robot takeover didn't work in the supermarket, but the wholesale club is the next target. 

This robot is named Tally, and it haunts the aisles of BJ's Wholesale Club, checking inventory. The Boston Globe ran a story about Tally in March. The paper wrote: "Tally’s job is to use its sensors to scan shelves and check that products are in-stock, shelved appropriately, and priced correctly, according to BJ’s news release. It sends the information it collects to grocery store employees, who can then make any necessary changes." 

It's interesting because it's doing one of those jobs that's stupidly easy for a human but must have been deuced difficult to program for the robot. A human can walk by and at a glance see if the products are placed properly in their spots, not messed up or busted open, and that there are no empty slots, but a robot has to read the codes to know that things are where they are supposed to be and somehow judge product condition. 

Tally moves about the speed of a person walking briskly. I guess it's not a bad job to relegate to the machines; no person is going to be employed just to do inventory checking, so the employees can do other things. Like follow-up on Tally's findings. BJ's said there will be no job losses due to the use of the robots. Of course, taking a duty away from the employees does mean there will be fewer new hires, but never mind. 

Tally came along the aisle at a good clip like a tall, supercharged Roomba, but the aisles are quite wide in the wholesale store and we did not interact. I wondered later what Tally would have done were I blocking the aisle, like one of those oblivious shoppers who likes to park the cart perpendicular to traffic while looking for the nutrition label on soap. Tally must be programmed to deal with these public nuisances. 

But what if I were more obstructive? What if I put one of those skids of Bounty in its way? Would it note the thing was out of place and go around it? Turn and go back? Ask me I was Sarah Connah? 

Well, I wasn't going to mess with the robot. This ain't no Walmart -- I could get my membership card revoked, and then where would I be? My wife needs that box of 75 Dunkin' Donuts K-cups, you know.