Our Stop & Shop now has one of these. “Marty the Robot” wanders around the store, looking for spills, broken glass, empty spaces in the shelves, whatever. (Y’know, this store in Pennsylvania somewhere looks exactly like our supermarket. Our robots are identical, too. This story is eerie enough without that. I mean, what if the people are identical, too…?)
Some of the shoppers were amused, some didn’t seen to notice Marty at all, and a few had to pause in wild surmise.
What do you want to bet Marty is also programmed to blow the whistle on shoplifters? Thou shalt not steal.
I’ve grown rather fond of the people who work at our Stop & Shop and would never want to see them replaced. We share jokes, news, commiserate with each other–yo, corporate! You gotta keep the people!
Recently a little child somehow got separated from his daddy, got scared, and started crying. A store employee took him by the hand and comforted him, and was all set to take him up to the front desk so they could page his daddy; but Daddy found them first.
A robot can’t do anything like that; and I would rather they didn’t try.