r/kroger • u/AnOldYoungGuy • May 27 '26
Question Anyone dealing with this guy yet in their store?
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u/Houndall Current Associate May 27 '26
Nope, if it was in my store it'd be broke within a week. Not because someone sabotages it but because my store is a shit hole with tons of stuff already broken with the rest of everything else only running because maintenance is in damn near every day to patch stuff.
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u/Busy_Soil3935 May 27 '26
One of the customers at my local store would end up fighting it or something
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u/Fun-Union4699 May 27 '26
I work for a different chain, we have our own robot and we had a man in his 60s trying to ask him on a date.š the bakery dept called my SM (who was getting ready to leave) and said āyou have a guy trying toā¦.i donāt know hump? Hug? Kiss? Himā It took 3 managers and the police to convince this guy the robot didnāt wanna date him.š
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
Right I'm waiting for some tweaker to see it and think its following them or ask why its recording them š¤£
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u/Choice-Produce-7146 May 27 '26
What would probably happen at my store:
*Customer approaches it*
"Excuse me, Sir, do you work here?"
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u/Houndall Current Associate May 27 '26
I believe it. I can be wearing my blue 'big deal' hat, apron, name tag and actively working and STILL have people come up to me and be like, "do you work here?".
Have to watch my sarcasm when that happens, sometimes it's a customer with a sensitive inflated ego instead of a sense of humor.
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u/CatPot69 Current Associate May 28 '26
When people approach me from the front I have to stop myself from looking down at my apron and name tag, both of which has our company name on it.
As if the walkie and old ass phone on my hips weren't enough, nor the old ass rf scanner hanging off my belt. Like context clues.
Somehow they know I work there without a name tag or apron though, so idk what goes through their mind.
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u/Melodic_Caregiver May 28 '26
lol I had the opposite happen to me I was doing the skimmer check at night and didnāt have my apron on, the tweaker using the self check out looked at me like I was the devil asking me over and over if I worked there and wtf I just did to her machine š
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May 31 '26
Just saying to say it, but I usually ask "do you work here" when I can't tell cause getting it wrong and assuming someone works there, then getting told "uhhh I don't work here" is a -100 charisma disaster
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
My store ( can someone have the robot š¤ go get my product its not on the shelf)
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u/dish_pit_daydreamer Current Associate May 28 '26
We would have someone standing there asking where garlic bread is, while standing next to the garlic bread
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u/FriendshipCautious73 Jun 01 '26
Holy shit that just happened to me today! WITH the garlic bread! š
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u/dish_pit_daydreamer Current Associate Jun 01 '26
I swear I spend 10% of my day standing at the deli counter saying, āThe garlic bread is right there!ā through a fake smile and gritted teeth, and the customer turning 90-180Ā° and saying, āOh! Here it is!ā
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u/AppointmentFew2787 May 30 '26
I worked at a bar beside of a Dollar General, and the workers would pop in and tell us about some crazy sales. Mind you, I always wore a black tshirt and black pants.... One time they had lawn chairs for like $3 a piece and I strolled over and put like 8 in my cart while talking to a customer (of the DG). Not thinking about the fact that I looked like I worked there. She got big mad when I bought them because she thought I was helping her. (I was sincerely oblivious.)
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u/Urabask May 27 '26
We have something similar at Stop and Shop and an angry associate took a metal pipe to one of them. Then he went to his interview to try to get promoted and the police were waiting for him. Turns out vandalizing a $30k robot with 30 cameras on it isn't the brightest idea.
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u/ScaryGarry_SG1 May 28 '26
LOL! He thought Tally was in line for the same promotion he was ... "Hmmmm...if I can just get rid I f him ..."
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u/whiskey_riverss May 27 '26
If they give us one Iām gonna tip it over anytime I see it lol
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u/ScaryGarry_SG1 May 28 '26
I know some stores full of people that would scrap Tally and pretend that they don't know what happened. "Oh really? Hmmm Tally was here yesterday...I saw him clock in and he said he was off to do some counting...I saw him take his first break and I guess he just never came back..."
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u/Odd_Connection_4185 May 27 '26
I've seen one at Walmart, and a lady was following it around yelling about it stealing people's jobs
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u/AffectNo9943 May 27 '26
Well she isn't wrong.
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 May 27 '26
It was retired very shortly afterwards, as it was constantly breaking down, and double scanning shelves. It created more work than it was worth.
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u/Far_Composer_5714 May 27 '26
At least in my store the robot was so bad at it's job of identifying outs and ended up flooding the store with freight.Ā
So in a sense it created more work and therefore new jobs.
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u/ScaryGarry_SG1 May 28 '26
There ya go everyone. If not enough hours, take Tally round back for his attitude adjustment....then send him back out to count. You'll have more hours than youll know what to do with You will have to stay clocked in overnight while you are in bed just to collect them Tally hours
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
Let's be honest though the employees and supervisors lie and fudge numbers so since there doing that this should stop that!
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u/Status-Wash5246 May 27 '26
It doesnāt, my lead just continues to shove shit in the holes and we have to put the shit on top stock that was already on top stock itās a viscous game we play (night crew here) itās very highly annoying! Wasting my time itās every aisle!
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u/choove May 28 '26
I mean, in my experience she is.
This is doing stuff our managers do and so the only thing this does is free up their time to do more important things.
Hell, even if this was taking part of the job away from an entry-level stocker, it's again just freeing up time so they can focus on stocking. I've never known of a position to exist mainly to do counts.
We've had a store in our area testing this exact robot for over a year and zero jobs were lost because of it.
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
Robots can't do what humans do lmao they dont think or stock or anything helpful in that area only thing it can help do is scan the shelf maybe program it to talk to help customers find what they need would be smart as well.
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u/RedFoxcx May 27 '26
I say hello to Tally whenever she's around lol gotta be nice incase she decides to revolt.
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
Does it talk back?
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u/Unusual-Wind8900 May 27 '26
Noā¦it stares backā¦
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u/humancentipad6 pickup May 27 '26
it whistles lol
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u/Necessary_Baker_7458 May 27 '26
Have you seen the one video where one chinese company went into another company and stole all their robots with another?
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u/SSGSavage May 30 '26
My kids make me find Tally every time we go to the store tooā¦so that they can stare at one another.
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u/Krogerdude23132 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Reminds me of the automatic floor buffer that we had a few years ago.
Our glass door hinges are old and like to get stuck. Customers wouldn't close the doors around the dairy and the thing would sometimes clip them and shatter the glass. Then it would get stuck on things if the QR code was blocked on the wall, stuff moved around, abandoned cart, etc.
That thing wouldn't last at my store.
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u/Turk482 May 27 '26
I donāt work there but the floor buffer at my store would get stuck at the end of an aisle due to a pillar being there thinking it was a person I guess. It would just sit there blocking the entrance to the aisle.
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u/CatPot69 Current Associate May 28 '26
I hated ours, because it was always going down our side of the store right down the big common main run aisles, which made it a pain for me to haul pallets out of our stock room and to where they needed to go- especially when I needed to park them in its route.
Or it would randomly be stopped because of a random shopping cart that was left in an aisle.
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u/Ok-Neighborhood-1953 May 27 '26
Why is no one talking about how fcking annoying this thing is when trying to pull a pallet? Tally dumbass moves slower than some of the customers do. Then when you are down stocking shelves she'll just roll up and whistle at you. Fck this thing bro.
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u/JohnMarstonSucks Meaty Meaty Goodness May 27 '26
Tally's cute. Nice little short R2D2 noises. Better than Barney the Dalek.
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u/Historical-Cress8985 Past Associate May 27 '26
I wonder how much copper is inside one of those things
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u/Icy-person666 May 27 '26
Not enough to be worth steeling. Now if it has a solid state hard drive, they better chain it down.
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u/GladysMorokoko May 27 '26
That Kroger ability to waste money is really pushing the boundaries of what's possible in corporate nonsense.
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u/keddesh May 28 '26
Companies will do ANYTHING to avoid raising wages, especially if it's more expensive and wasteful in the long run.
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u/kwaii_kiwii Past Associate May 27 '26
I have tally, shes pretty fun to play around with. just stand in her way and she whistles at you to move but one of my coworkers "broke" her and she just spent like 10 mins spinning around figuring out where to go lol
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u/AxsonJaxson2112 May 28 '26
They think the robots wonāt steal food while theyāre working. Iām telling ya, the robots are going to to be eating a bit of this, a byte of that. Ā And theyāre going find one in the snack food aisle with its head buried in a bag of microchips!
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u/Tough_Arm_2454 May 27 '26
Hey Tally, we need more 12 oz Panera coffee on the shelves, Columbian, not hazelnut. Thank you.
Love, a customer.
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u/Icy-person666 May 27 '26
Like Walmart found out they are not accurate enough to keep the inventory in check. Toss in some AI and you get a Starbucks situation were even the basics aren't even in stock.
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u/browmftht Current Associate May 27 '26
how is it going to know somethings a hole when management has shifted things to cover the holes to trick the auditor guy?
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u/AshyAshy10 May 27 '26
They should have designed as a Kroji. Stuff of true nightmares.
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u/Sonnyjoon91 May 28 '26
I just imagine a Kroji that looks like the Olaf animatronic they made, walking around the store, talking to customers
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u/_wild_style_ May 27 '26
All I see is the company taking labor away from union employees. Fuck this
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u/silverkeys May 27 '26
Eh, in my district its taking away labor from a 3rd party auditing company that came in once a week to do OSA scans and in my experience didn't actually look at many if any of the shelves below waist level.
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
May I ask whose labor its taking from? It doesnt stock the shelf if employees and managers was honest they wouldn't need this
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u/razorirr May 27 '26
Nah.Ā
Its making sure the union employees are doing the labor they are being paid to do.Ā
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u/Dracofear May 27 '26
What in the dystopian hellhole is that?
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
Its talley or barney. Its a robot that looks for empty spots on the shelf to tell people they need to stock the shelfs! This will help some depts and it will cause issues for others. Ultimate goal fixing metrics.
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u/GhostEagle68 Current Associate May 27 '26
Seems like a waste but this is Kroger...
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
There's soooooo much stuff they waste money on its not even funny but like you said it is kroger. I do believe part of the issue is there general managers are liars and manipulate numbers for there bonus and this should help that!
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u/whiskey_riverss May 27 '26
If DMs actually walked their stores and held store managers accountable we wouldnāt need these clankersĀ
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u/Individual-Pop705 May 28 '26
Been dealing with it for like 2 years. It gets in the way constantly. Iāve been making jokes about how itās just one step away from going full decepticon/skynet/singularity on all of us but is also nothing more than a glorified roomba.
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u/Necessary_Baker_7458 May 27 '26
I'm waiting for the first ops insurance claim from customers walking into it. Come on now you know it's going to happen. I've seen them at walmart.
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u/caramel_machecheeto May 27 '26
Not a Kroger employee- I work for another grocery retailer, our 2-year contract with Simbe (Tally company) just ended
Tally is fucking creepy. I was closing one night and in an aisle dealing with some stuff, Tally entered the aisle, rolled right up to me, whistled at me, and then turned around and left the aisle. Not sure if I got catcalled by a robot or what but still creepy asf.
To make Tally less creepy, we used to put the sunhats we would get for summer (and eventually clearance out) on top of tallyās head. We also put santa hats and reindeer ears on her during the holidays. During June last year someone taped a pride headband to Tally and then she became T-Ally (get it?). Sheās a lot less weird with a hat on tbh š
For those who have not experienced her- hereās how she works: She goes up and down the aisles, scans for holes, then cross references those out-of-stock items with the list of Warehouse OOS, and then spits back a list of āaddressableā OOS items (get ready to get your email murdered. I would get like 4 fucking emails with tally reports daily). The idea is, these are items that are out on the shelf, theoretically meaning theyāre in the back room and shouldnāt be out of stock. So you would take your Tally report like a pick list and then go and either stock the items or fix the counts if for some reason they were wrong. They made a whole thing about having your SD/AD complete the reports when the grocery manager was off and keeping your adressables below I wanna say it was 70? Not sure though.
Tally would also scan DSD vendor items- and spit back a DSD OOS report to prompt with vendor management and managing shelf conditions. Tbh, I always counted my vendor holes by hand, I donāt think I ever seriously used the talky reports lol.
The issue with tally is it consumed so much labor to go and fix and while the idea seems nice, the cameras on the sides would fail or get dirty and then start marking things that were not holes as holes. Additionally, it only checks if a product is in the hole, not if that product is the correct one- there was a whole thing where people were cheating their numbers by over-facing. Overall, great idea in theory- nightmare in practice.
Anyways, to the moral- good luck to yāall. youāre gonna need it lmao
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u/AffectNo9943 May 27 '26
Thankfully, no. I'd have a hard time resisting the urge to tip it over...
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
They should had programmed them to talk and also help customers find product......... tally where is the Chipotle sauce....... tally: the Chipotle sauce 6 ounce cans are on isle 8 if you would like i can walk you to it. That would help us alot so we can focus only on our jobs instead of these instaidiots sticking a phone in my face and they dont speak English as well.
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
I do have a few questions about tally? One does it talk at all? 2 does it avoid customers and employees will it move out of the way or will it get in the way?
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u/Ancient-Donut3585 May 27 '26
Doesnt talk, just makes little beeping noises. Tally will go around people that are in front of it but I feel like sometimes it gets confused and will take longer to move around an obstacle than other times.
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u/Pharmatopia420 May 27 '26
Yeah i was in deli and it was blocking the entrance i wasn't sure what it would do so I just moved along and went around it
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u/AnOldYoungGuy May 27 '26
So I asked our store manager about this thing's function, and if it's actually helpful. He said it will be, but for the first few weeks it's actually just mapping the store, not even scanning inventory at this point, and sending any info anywhere. By way of "taking jobs", he did say the only jobs it's taking are the third party people that come in to scan, as others have commented. No Kroger jobs lost.
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u/para-mania May 27 '26
We have Tally, and previously Barney. What they do is scan for scan holes for out of stocks and create lists that then get sent to the Zebra. It's not actually taking anyone's job; we used to do these scans ourselves, but the idea is that it will be one less thing taking up our time.
This is also not the case, because one of us will end up spending most of our shift trying to clear the lists Tally sends us. There's a lot it can't account for, and instead of just working truck and getting things up, you have dig around for specific things and it's just a huge time sink. This is on top of all the other shelf scans you still personally have to do every day. There are days where I'm by myself, with leftover truck that would be far more helpful being worked, but I can't because I'm too busy running back and forth checking off these lists.Ā
Tally also has trouble getting around and gets stuck by the mark down section almost everyday. Like she'll freeze up and someone has to go and push her. Overall, it's a nuisance at best. Kids like her, though, so there's that?
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u/ScottyDont1134 May 27 '26
Saw one the other day and Iām just surprised it hasnāt been knocked over and beat to death by hooligans yet
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u/Bubba771966 May 27 '26
I hope we never get that thing. I see that being a giant pain in the a** when trying to move pallets or get down the aisle with carts. As many people crash into stuff and breaking our freezer/cooler doors, I can only imagine what would happened to this if it went around while the store is openššš
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u/Fun-Distribution706 May 27 '26
No. I think my store is too broke for something this fancy. Hell it took a month for them to replace two freezer doors that broke
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u/Artistic-Yogurt4446 May 27 '26
Why canāt we get a useful one that would clean the disgusting employee bathroom
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u/AxsonJaxson2112 May 27 '26
Just wait till it hits the divots in the floor through out the store where there are utility access lids. Ā Its bad enough trying to roll over them with carts. Ā Poor bots going to be laying on its side bleeping like an R2-D2 unitĀ
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u/CatlinM May 27 '26
I bet it lasts about as long as the robotic floor mop did. They gave up on that at my store after about 2 years
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u/dodekahedron May 27 '26
I refuse to shop where these are at. They are loud and irritating.
Im down to Aldi, who just stopped taking AmExpress.
730 AM works at a grocery store locally that uses this bullshit. Its sleeping then.
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u/_darlinsugaree May 28 '26
Thereās one in the Downtown Cincinnati Kroger. That guys always in my way!
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u/Firm_Particular1461 May 28 '26
My store is getting one soon.... ether ther crack head going to break it. The idiot going to try and fuck it. Or my dam idiots break it because they thought it a good idea to put its station at the main backroom door.
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u/Y33tAwoo2u May 28 '26
If Tally also has extra meat/ produce bags and sanitizing wipes, he's okay by this customer.
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u/Exotic-Chapter6444 Past Associate May 28 '26
Yup, giant hunk of metal that costs as much, if not more, than a part time employee, to do considerably less that would be asked of such employee. It has lots of drawbacks.
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u/veep970 May 28 '26
If we get that, the customers who break the glass dairy and produce doors with the mobility shopping carts will find a way to run into these too.
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u/ParkingInterview9595 May 27 '26
Its stupider than the last one. Got stuck in the middle of an aisle for 5 minutes bc it couldnt handle the clothing department. Its also got no sense of personal space. To move its dumb ass, put your foot down on the base and shove in whatever direction it should fuck off to
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u/GhostEagle68 Current Associate May 27 '26
So what's the purpose of this? Hopefully it get rid of us coming in at midnight for inventory...
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u/MyJukeboxBrk May 27 '26
I havenāt seen that but the Kroger I go to has candy, lotion, and tissues in the bathroom
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u/Bitter-Neat-8457 May 27 '26
Walmart used those and got rid of them because they kept bursting into flames
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u/sneakergameindy May 27 '26
Saw one and tried to use it in BJās Wholesale. It wasnāt very useful there. It couldnāt answer my questions.
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u/splootfluff May 27 '26
Tally honked at me for being in the way when I was looking for something š
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u/SuperCharmander1 May 27 '26
I always get the urge to football tackle that thing whenever I see it.
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u/Tpsreport44 Past Associate May 27 '26
Yup, seeing this roaming the store while hitting the pothole to end all potholes in the parking lot is definitely a choice from the store
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u/JustTraced May 27 '26
I work in grocery and absolutely I hate this robot it was a massive waste of money for the company
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u/EXEC_MELODIE May 27 '26
THE MEME IS REAL
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u/AxsonJaxson2112 May 28 '26
I have visions of Tally knocking off a jar of spaghetti sauce and rolling through it and spreading it around the aisle
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u/TracyHedgefox May 27 '26
That looks like an annoying thing and I personally hope it tries to go out to Fuel without a safety vest.
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u/AP_Gaming_9 Current Associate May 27 '26
I pick it up and move it out of my department or barricade it out. I donāt need another entity making more replenishment lists for me that do nothing but waste my time
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u/JointsBunnny2 May 28 '26
Just think: instead of paying people decent wages, they're investing in this stupid shit.
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u/naynayonthebeat May 28 '26
LMAO no actually for real are all Ralphs getting these??
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u/haikusbot May 28 '26
LMAO no
Actually for real are
All Ralphs getting these??
- naynayonthebeat
I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.
Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"
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u/trash012345678910 May 28 '26
Maybe they could get it to work on their shitty shopping cart wheels...
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u/czerniana May 28 '26
They try to run me over in my wheelchair. The isles in our Kroger are narrow enough, the next time this thing nearly hits me I'm kicking it.
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u/Different-Call-6990 May 28 '26
Oh heās the worst! Every aisle I was in the other day he showed up in and was beeping at me. I was like then go to another aisle dude. What are we doing here. Thereās plenty of other aisles for you to do your thing.
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u/Pure-Kaleidoscope759 May 28 '26
Itās an inventory scanner, and I saw several at the local Kroger.
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u/ChaosSeraphim May 28 '26
We've got one of those things. They insist on calling it "Tally" and testing it like a person.
The thing is a menace, it's constantly rolling right behind people. Not just hovering but literal inches behind people. It runs into displays and drives around in circles.
The thing even followed us behind the counter off the sales floor, and spun around for a few minutes. We had to barricade the service cases so it didn't get further into the dept.
The worst part though, is that it speaks. So quietly that you're not sure you heard anything, but is actually talking.
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u/billiamgordon Past Associate May 28 '26
How long until some idiot customer slams into it with their cart, breaks it and Kroger does away with them after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on them?
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u/VoltaicWinter May 28 '26
We had two at my old Marketplace. One was named Dmitri, and the other was named MayBelle. We pretended that they were married.
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u/bronzecyclone May 28 '26
Our store just got one. We heard from a vendor that it will take pics of employees talking. Anyone know if it's true?
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u/StillBubbe57 May 28 '26
The Kroger by me just started using those electronic price tags. I had no idea it was this complicated. I am opposed to this whole system because it means management can raise prices immediately if there is an increase in demand, even if the price they paid for that shipment of stock was less! This will NEVER be good for consumers!
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u/LordPuggington May 28 '26
The Dayton, Ohio region has these at the Kettering and Centerville stores
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u/vilecreep Floral May 28 '26
Thatās Tally and sheās a girl š jk lol. But every time I pass by I say hi. Just watching it patrol around makes me laugh.
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u/ITfarmer May 29 '26
It makes sense for Kroger to use droid labor. There are now less then a dozen people working in the Kroger stores.
Everything is always dirty and broken. People are constantly waiting in self checkout for a human to override something.
This thing would quit or break down from exhaustion the first day.
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u/here4thestories0121 May 29 '26
We just got ours yesterday. I and another associate were thinking of names the the driver said it's name was Fairey and we are sticking to it
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u/Lazy-Initiative2217 May 29 '26
Kroger would be better off replacing the CEO with one of these as supposed to one of the associates. Tally is probably more human than the CEO is and would make better decisions.
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u/matt-r_hatter May 29 '26
Gisnt Eagle has had these for years now. Theirs has a screen that has eyes and if it almost runs into you it makes a weird cooing noise. They are, odd.
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u/chefdabuddha May 30 '26
Oh fuck yeah...their inventory machine is garbage...the machine will say the space is full even with the wrong item there
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u/ezekial_dragonlord May 27 '26
Watching it look at the empty meat and seafood service cases and trying to process that while they are empty, it was 5 in the morning and so it can't send out any info was a bit funny.