ST. LOUIS — Schnuck Markets Inc. is expanding its use of Tally inventory-taking robots to all of its stores chainwide.
The grocer began testing the artificial intelligence-powered robots, built by Simbe Robotics, at its Richmond Heights store in 2017. It was expanded to more than a dozen stores in 2018, and to more than half its stores in October.
Schnuck Markets said Thursday that a multiyear, full-scale rollout now will bring Tally robots to all 111 Schnucks stores. Officials said the expansion will make Schnucks the world's first grocer to use AI-powered inventory management chainwide.
Tally roams Schnucks store aisles, auditing inventory on shelves and alerting staff when items are low or out of stock, mispriced or misplaced. The robot operates alongside shoppers, scanning entire stores up to three times a day and autonomously returning to its dock.
Schnucks said Tally has enabled a 20% to 30% reduction in out-of-stock items, and increased price tag and promotional execution across tens of thousands of products daily. Officials said the robot's technology also has increased accuracy of information integrated into Schnucks' automated replenishment system and delivered access to real-time product location data through the Schnucks Rewards app.
By incorporating Tally's technology chainwide, Schnucks said it will get greater visibility into store conditions, as it prepares to adjust to quickly-changing post-pandemic business conditions.
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