Robot worker could be coming to an NJ ShopRite near you

Remember Marty, the googly-eyed store assistant at Stop & Shop? 

Now say hello to Tally. The robot was piloted at 20 ShopRite grocery stores across New Jersey by Woodbridge-based Wakefern Food Corporation, the parent company of ShopRite. 

“After a highly productive pilot, the stores were able to leverage Simbe’s real-time insights to meaningfully reduce out-of-stock rates, maximizing inventory availability and exceeding industry standards,” Wakefern said in press release. Simbe refers to Simbe Robotics, Tally’s parent company.

Wakefern has not yet announced which stores will use the robot nor a timeline for the rollout of it. A company spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment. 

Tally is an inventory robot, traveling up and down aisles to ensure shelves and products are properly stocked, shelved and priced.  This frees up time for other store employees to focus more on working with customers. 

According to Simbe, Tally can process between 15,000 and 30,000 products an hour while working alongside other staff. 

“Tally is seamlessly integrated in challenging retail environments like tight, crowded spaces and aisles,” the Simbe website reads.  

Last year, Wakefern said it would begin piloting autonomous check-out technology that relies on a smartphone app and scannable QR code so that the store wouldn’t need a checkout lane or cashiers. 

In 2021, H Mart, the Asian grocery chain based in Lyndhurst, announced plans for an automated “micro-fulfillment center” in Carlstadt.

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But all that has chipped away at the grocery store workforce, which according to Francis Ryan, a labor historian at Rutgers, had higher unionization rates and offered a long-term career path for employees. 

Other sectors like hospitality have seen wide degrees of automation. Robots are slinging burgers in Jersey City, boiling noodles in New Brunswick and rolling out bowls of ramen in Cranford.

But all-out automation might not be so quick to take over.

Human beings have an advantage: Robots lack the versatility and warmth a flesh-and-blood worker can provide, said Luck Sarabhayavanija, owner of Ani Ramen in Cranford where the store employed "Rosie the Ramenbot."

“We’re in the hospitality businesses. We’re here to serve people, and there’s a certain element of hospitality that’s completely lost” with automation, he said. “I have no desire to own a restaurant group that’ll be run like the Jetsons.”

Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record. 

Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100