Table Talk: Keeping tallies on Tally, Kroger’s new stocking robot
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Tally, Kroger’s new stock-counting robot, seen at the Mendenhall grocery store. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian)
If you’ve been startled by Kroger’s newest — and autonomous — employee, you’re not alone.
The “employee” is Tally, an autonomous inventory robot created by San Francisco-based retail technology company Simbe Robotics to help big-box retailers with inventory.
Tally has blinking blue lights, emits sounds like R2-D2 from “Star Wars” and, at least at the Kroger on Mendenhall Road, wears a little blue party hat.
According to a case study from Simbe, Tally uses shelf-intelligence technology to help keep items in stock, track sales and reduce pricing errors.
You might be wondering how a pole-like robot can help stock shelves. Well, they aren’t doing the stocking themselves — not yet, at least.
Tally cruises up and down aisles, stopping to scan sections of shelves for inventory, pricing and availability with its scanners and sensors. It then sends the information back to its fellow, human employees.
Tally and I met this past week at Kroger on Mendenhall Road, and I’ll admit, I was a bit caught off guard and took several photos.
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Sophia Surrett
Sophia Surrett is a University of Alabama graduate, where she received her B.A. in news media and M.A. in journalism and media studies. She has been with The Daily Memphian since July 2023, first starting as a business reporter covering various beats. Now, she covers food, restaurants, and hospitality and tourism.
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