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Comment by ineedasername | Hacker News Reader

I have one near me. It's intrusive & annoying, often blocking aisles and getting in a customer's way in a more dangerous fashion than the situations it's supposed to detect.

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I also have one near me. I don't find it intrusive or annoying, and while it may get in a customer's way now and then I do not consider it dangerous in the least. I often find it sitting in front of a spill of some sort in produce trying to page a worker to come clean whatever it is.

Are spills so common in grocery stores that this is really worthwhile? Sure, I've seen spills, and staff cleaning them up; I've even reported a spill to staff when it didn't seem to have been noticed yet. But it's hardly an everyday occurrence, in my experience.

Not sure where you shop, but I can't remember the last time I went to a "normal" (i.e. not Whole Foods level overpriced) grocery store near me and didn't see some kind of spill, mess, or hazard on the floor.

Granted I specifically avoid shopping on weekends but I go to two grocery stores of a chain known for being value priced in a city known for being the opposite of upscale. I can't remember the last time I saw a spill or something on the floor that was actually worth avoiding, a green bean someone dropped, sure but nothing worthy of being called a "spill".

It sounds like you've never worked in a grocery store. I did for 6 years (all of high school and 2 summers during college.) When we weren't on the register, we were almost constantly mopping from spills and broken jars. In a store with older equipment, even the coolers in the produce and frozen department will cause minor condensation on the floors (most grocery stores have rubber mats in those areas specifically because it would be a full-time job keeping up with it otherwise.)

It was certainly a t least a 2-3 times a day occurrence.

The reason is pretty clear: grocery stores work on such slim margins that even a minor lawsuit from someone slipping or being cut on broken glass might be the end of the store.

When this robot was added to my hometown's grocery store my family was similarly mystified discussing it, but my father is an insurance professional and said it's a really serious liability expense for grocery stores to manage spills. People who slip and fall on legitimate accidental spills that weren't attended to promptly will sue the grocery, and there are people who will create spills to self inflict injuries for the same reason. His opinion was this kind of oversight is a no brainer for a grocery to reduce the liability overhead, but we also couldn't determine why that's better accomplished with a robot than cameras in the ceiling. Maybe to reduce perceived "big brother" vibes?

Edit: I don't think your comment should be downvoted below the fold, because I think it's pretty natural for people unfamiliar with the operation of a grocery store to have a knee-jerk skeptical reaction to putting a robot in one

I can see how this could, theoretically, help manage spills and related injuries. However, at least the one near me is so slow. It would take hours for it to do a round of the store. It spends most it's time standing still in an attempt to not get in the way of passing shoppers. I'd think that having a stock clerk make a round of the store every 45 or hour would work much better. A brisk walk across the top of the aisles, looking down them for spills, wouldn't take more than a few minutes.

Spills happen all the time, and if they are not cleaned up promptly they create a liability for the store. People (old people especially) can be seriously injured or even killed by slipping on spills. That could cost a store millions of dollars in injury or wrongful death damages per incident.

I've seen the one near me make turns into people's carts, not stopping until something crosses it's front sensor. Or stop in the middle of aisles preventing people from getting by on either side. These issues seem more prevalent when the store is busy.

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