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Video: See Takeoff’s Micro-Fulfillment Center in a Grocery Store in Action

by Chris Albrecht
October 31, 2019October 31, 2019Filed under:
  • Future of Grocery
  • Robotics, AI & Data
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We’ve written a lot about micro-fulfillment as an emerging trend to watch in grocery retail. Micro-fulfillment involves a store building out a robot-driven system in the back of house to help automate the assembly of online grocery orders. But because these micro-fulfillment centers are relatively new and only in a few locations on the East Coast, we at the Seattle-based Spoon, don’t get to see them in action.

So I really appreciate that Stewart Samuel of IDG Supply Chain Analysis took some video footage during his recent visit to a working Takeoff facility at a Sedano’s Market in Miami, Florida. In it, you can see the tote boxes scurry around and up and down on rails bringing items to a human who packs each order.

What’s nice about this video is that it is not some slick, soft-focus, fluffy marketing piece produced by the company. It’s a raw, unfiltered look at how these machines operate, and the result is very… mundane. I actually mean that in a good way. Everything just seems to work, albeit at a rapid clip. The totes move around on a conveyor in precise movements with a human pulling and packing items as they are dropped off. Though I can’t tell how happy or not the person pulling items from the fast moving boxes is. That human seems to be doing the kind of manual, repetitive labor robots were supposed to save us from.

Automated fulfillment is just starting to make its way to the market. In addition to Sedano’s, Takeoff has agreements with Albertsons, Ahold Delhaize and Wakefern. Fabric just raised $110 million for its automated micro-fulfillment system. Elsewhere, Kroger is opting for a larger footprint by building out full-on standalone robot-driven warehouses. As these automated fulfillment centers come online, we’ll have to see if they fulfill the promise of faster grocery delivery and pickup and help grow online grocery shopping.


Related

Takeoff, eh? Canada Grocer Loblaws Testing In-Store Robotic Micro-Fulfillment

Loblaws, Canada's largest grocery chain, announced this week that it was piloting Takeoff Technologies' robot-powered micro-fulfillment center in one of its stores. Supermarket News reports that the two companies have already started building out the center in Toronto and will fulfill orders for Lawlaws' PC Express pickup service next year.…

Albertsons and Takeoff Partner for Robot-powered Grocery Micro-Fulfillment

Grocery retailer Albertsons and Takeoff Technologies announced today that they are forming a strategic partnership with a dedicated teams to "collaborate on the evolution of microfulfillment," according to the press release. Translation: Albertsons is getting more robots to grab your groceries. Takeoff creates robot-driven micro-fulfillment centers to facilitate online grocery…

Albertsons Partners with Takeoff for In-Store Robot-Powered Micro-FulFillment Center

Albertsons announced today it will pilot a new micro-fulfillment center in one of its grocery stores using Takeoff's robot-powered technology. The deal marks the first time a nationwide grocery chain will implement Takeoff's technology, and further highlights how robots will play an increasingly important part of the grocery retail experience.…

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Tagged:
  • grocery
  • micro-fulfillment
  • Takeoff

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