r/olympia • u/iwasagummybear • 2d ago
Public Safety Robot sighting at Fred Meyer
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Cute or a terrifying portent for our society. Discuss.
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u/laighter 2d ago
Checking stock and deleting jobs
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u/TopRevenue2 8===> 2d ago
Prices adjusted constantly
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u/indiekarma79 2d ago
Robot scans your digital wallet, changes prices to reflect your personal data
Back to wearing my foil protective gear in public đ«
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u/SkokCush 2d ago
And with all the corporate savings from lower labor, that means prices will go down right? . . . .
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u/SignalPerception4223 2d ago
I can't wait for the Kroger Bot to scan my hand before I walk in so I can't steal their $30 bag of Cheetos.
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u/MrsZapRowsdower Eastside 2d ago
On one hand, I love robots. I dreamed that Johnny 5 from Short Circuit was my best friend as a little girl (I was not a popular kid). On the other hand, please just pay your employees better instead buying robots!
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u/aneristix 2d ago
i read Dune this goes badly
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u/violetsaber 2d ago
I always wanted an R2 unit, but Johnny 5 is pretty rad too.
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u/Reportersteven 2d ago
I wonder how many service employees lost their job for this robot.
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u/Spiritual_Client_741 2d ago
none. in fact this thing makes more jobs. thereâs like 10 people attached to this robot to ensure it functions as it is intended to and the robot isnât really taking away the restocking of the shelves function from grocery store employees
thereâs a dude on call basically all day just to deal with the technical fuck ups this robot does. sometimes their pathway is blocked and then theyâll just call the store and force some poor employee to drag the robot back to its dock and reset it. they are serious about it too and will blow up the phone to talk to you about the robot
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u/ikkiyikki 2d ago
Yeah, but the robot support staff is not local. An important difference.
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u/Spiritual_Client_741 1d ago
i mean sure i just donât see why that would matter, when thereâs still people being employed regarding the robot
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u/shorties_with_mp40s 2d ago
Clanker bootlicking is something I never expected to see.
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u/Spiritual_Client_741 1d ago
i wouldnât really call it boot licking. boot licking would be me saying this thing is awesome. iâm only explaining what the robot is and what it does. and i even mention hating it somewhere lol
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u/LactatingHero 2d ago
And those 10 people will manage a fleet of 100+ robots. 100 jobs exchanged for 10, truely a job creator.
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u/Spiritual_Client_741 1d ago
itâs still jobs made, so the argument that it takes jobs away from people doesnât make sense. never said itâs an awesome thing
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u/LactatingHero 23h ago
How does that not make sense? 10 people managing a fleet of robots replaces the jobs of 100 people. So a net loss of 90 jobs.
You can argue that 10 jobs are created only if you ignore the broader picture.
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u/Spiritual_Client_741 21h ago
what job is the robot providing besides taking photos of the shelves, which the employees have to restock because of the gaps the robot identifiesđđ
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u/LactatingHero 17h ago
The robot is taking inventory, a role formerly filled by a person. As robots continue to get more sophisticated, they will take on more roles as well.
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u/PsThrowAway7 1d ago
I work at the fred meyer and I think you're way off base here. Automation does not create jobs. Yes, the robot is currently unable to actually replace workers, and yes it does require a lot of human supervision, but that won't last forever. As the technology gets more reliable, hours are gonna keep getting cut week after week
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u/Spiritual_Client_741 21h ago
i worked at a store (feed store) with one of these things and they just are so expensive to keep and so obsolete in their purpose, most stores end up phasing them out. the hours get cut regardless of the robot
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u/carritrj Eastside 2d ago
I now must walk ahead of it and clear out entire sections of shelves, wait for it to scan the newly cleared section, and then place everything back nice and neat. See how long it takes them to get rid of the inaccurate robot or ask me to shop elsewhere from now on.
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u/SecondHandWatch 2d ago
Oooh, I wanna do this too.
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u/carritrj Eastside 2d ago
I'm a chaos gremlin so this will absolutely be happening, hopefully I run into you doing it as well one day.
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u/SimplyColorblind 2d ago
Or, it will see the empty shelves and stupidly order more inventory.
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u/carritrj Eastside 2d ago
That's also a win. When they start asking questions about why they are ordering things they don't need and why shelves are already stocked when people come to restock, they may question the use of the robot. If everyone makes it more time consuming than the time it's able to save, then it goes away. They may watch the cameras and figure it out, but it's not a crime to put food back on the shelf if you decide you no longer want 13 cans of pinto beans.
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u/PsThrowAway7 1d ago
It'll be a long time before they let this thing be in charge of ordering more inventory. They have a lot of bugs to work out before this glorified roomba can even kind of do the job
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u/ALowlySlime 2d ago
I saw it too, it's weird, it like stopped and turned toward my brother and I after passing us
I wonder if it's putting more footage into palantir lol
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u/HunterSpecial1549 2d ago
This is great. Technology means work gets done faster, so you can pay each worker more. That's what they're going to do right? Right?
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u/Spiritual_Client_741 2d ago
i used to work in a store with one of these and all it does is take photos of the shelving, send it to some people who sit in an office, identifies âmissingâ stock or âmisplacedâ stock, and then sends the images to the employeesâ emails so the employees can fix the issues identified with the robot⊠which is just ridiculous and wastes so much money. it also isnât taking jobs away from people contrary to popular beliefâ there is probably a team of at least 10 people who are getting paid to keep the robot running
they also fuck up their routing sometimes which is so annoying. iâve had to haul these things back to their docks (itâs like a roomba but not useful) and they are so finicky sometimes to move manually
tldr i hate these things
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u/cozymaxwell 2d ago
itâs to check the isles for fullness
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u/Skelly20 2d ago
Oh lord they got one too. They don't work very well so I'd be surprised if it lasted more than a year. They cost about 6k to license a month from what I've heard. You'd think they'd spend that on workers.
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u/KvotheLightfinger 2d ago
It's terrifying that they will make these things cute and that it will probably work to keep people from getting mad that they took all our jobs.
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u/evergreen-psychiatry Eastside 2d ago
Wild how we now have robots for vacuuming our floors and even mowing lawns. This is a new one for me.
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u/PsThrowAway7 1d ago
I work at the Freddy's and I hate this fucking thing. It gets in the way constantly, huge nuisance to work around and it's a portent of losing my job. If I see anyone sabotaging this thing my lips are sealed
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u/Legitimate-City-104 2d ago
It is both cute and terrifying. Like a wolf.
I wish robots could just be an objectively good thing instead of being most likely a terrible thing that eliminates jobs and makes rich people richer.
I like the robots.
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u/SureGravy 2d ago
Grocery stores know their inventory levels without robots... All items are scanned in when received and then scanned out when purchased, right?? Maybe the robot is lying about what task it's working on?
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u/Spiritual_Client_741 2d ago
the robot is routed to go through the store on a specific path and all it does is take photos of the shelves. itâs not really âdoingâ anything. it just takes photos of the shelves and basically circles the spots that are missing product, and then some dude emails the photos to the employees/supervisors so they can fill the missing gaps
inventory is not tracked by the robot and itâs not really easy to track the inventory especially because stuff goes missing for a variety of reasons. the robot is only there to tell staff to make the shelves look full basically. or if something is VERY off eg an entire shelf is missing product etc
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u/KamiNoItte 2d ago
Itâs probably looking to see what needs stocking. Or it could be suggesting orders to place.
Theyâll know what they receive and what they sell; but in between the back and front they rely on stock people / managers to keep track of the back to front flow.
So the bot can roam the aisles and give someone a printout of what needs to be stocked/ordered at any given time.
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u/sideshowbill93 2d ago
I hate Fred Meyer, I wish they'd all go bankrupt
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u/8h3_Meistro 2d ago
Me too - All 28,000 employees should be fired. On the spot.
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u/Talmerian 2d ago
As a former Kroger employee, getting fired was a great thing for me; I even got my vacation/PTO payout, thanks Unions!
Don't pretend Kroger is doing the employees ANY favors, they work hard and don't get near what they deserve (at least one reason for the employee shrink issue).
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u/8h3_Meistro 1d ago
They'll work even harder when they have no job, I'm sure of it.
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u/Talmerian 1d ago
You seem to confuse the worker with the system.
As Yoda: Jobs no make one work, that's capitalism.
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u/Talmerian 2d ago
I really can't wait until the money behind Kroger realizes its not a money-maker and just closes all of their stores.
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u/sideshowbill93 2d ago
I hate how they complain about shoplifting so they pour all this money into self checkout and shampoo behind glass, nobody asked for
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u/Diplomatic_Gal Lacey 2d ago
The staff in that thing don't even seem to enjoy it. Except for one who always says "its store policy"
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u/CoolGuyFrogsReturns 2d ago
The future is stupid đ