Walmart Inc, the world’s largest retailer, which operates nearly 5,000 stores nationwide will add small robot-staffed warehouses to dozens of its stores to help fill orders for pickup and delivery .
The robots will work behind the scenes, picking frozen and refrigerated foods as well as smaller general merchandise items from inside the warehouses, or local fulfillment centers, that will carry “thousands of frequently purchased items.”
Store staff, meanwhile, will go to the sales floor to fetch fresh produce, meat, seafood and larger general merchandise items like large-screen TVs, then returning to the centers to finish assembling orders, the company said.
Walmart is planning to have this facility in dozens of locations initially and to expand it later.
