Dec 02, 2018
Walmart announced Monday it will have 360 floor-cleaning robots in its stores by the end of January.
In a joint statement with developer Brain Corp, the retail giant said a Walmart worker would first ride the Zamboni-like machine to teach it the route; after that a push of the button would allow machine to take off on the route by itself.
"You see what happens when you all keep complaining about a living wage!?" commented one social media user. Another tweeted sarcastically, "Looks like Trump's corporate tax cuts are helping create jobs and increase wages!"
As Bloomberg reported,
Walmart has already been experimenting with automating the scanning of shelves for out-of-stock items and hauling products from storage for online orders. Advances in computer vision are also making it possible to use retail floor data to better understand consumer behavior, improve inventory tracking and even do away with checkout counters, as Amazon.com Inc. is trying to do with its cashierless stores. Brain's robots are equipped with an array of sensors that let them to gather and upload data.
Walmart continues to face calls to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, and the recently-introduced "Stop Walmart Act" aims to pressure the company to do so.
"If Walmart can find $20 billion for stock buybacks to further enrich the Waltons, it can find the money to raise the pay of its workers to a living wage," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif), who introduced the measure in the House. "It's time to put workers over wealthy corporations--across our nation, one company at a time."
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Walmart announced Monday it will have 360 floor-cleaning robots in its stores by the end of January.
In a joint statement with developer Brain Corp, the retail giant said a Walmart worker would first ride the Zamboni-like machine to teach it the route; after that a push of the button would allow machine to take off on the route by itself.
"You see what happens when you all keep complaining about a living wage!?" commented one social media user. Another tweeted sarcastically, "Looks like Trump's corporate tax cuts are helping create jobs and increase wages!"
As Bloomberg reported,
Walmart has already been experimenting with automating the scanning of shelves for out-of-stock items and hauling products from storage for online orders. Advances in computer vision are also making it possible to use retail floor data to better understand consumer behavior, improve inventory tracking and even do away with checkout counters, as Amazon.com Inc. is trying to do with its cashierless stores. Brain's robots are equipped with an array of sensors that let them to gather and upload data.
Walmart continues to face calls to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, and the recently-introduced "Stop Walmart Act" aims to pressure the company to do so.
"If Walmart can find $20 billion for stock buybacks to further enrich the Waltons, it can find the money to raise the pay of its workers to a living wage," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif), who introduced the measure in the House. "It's time to put workers over wealthy corporations--across our nation, one company at a time."
Walmart announced Monday it will have 360 floor-cleaning robots in its stores by the end of January.
In a joint statement with developer Brain Corp, the retail giant said a Walmart worker would first ride the Zamboni-like machine to teach it the route; after that a push of the button would allow machine to take off on the route by itself.
"You see what happens when you all keep complaining about a living wage!?" commented one social media user. Another tweeted sarcastically, "Looks like Trump's corporate tax cuts are helping create jobs and increase wages!"
As Bloomberg reported,
Walmart has already been experimenting with automating the scanning of shelves for out-of-stock items and hauling products from storage for online orders. Advances in computer vision are also making it possible to use retail floor data to better understand consumer behavior, improve inventory tracking and even do away with checkout counters, as Amazon.com Inc. is trying to do with its cashierless stores. Brain's robots are equipped with an array of sensors that let them to gather and upload data.
Walmart continues to face calls to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, and the recently-introduced "Stop Walmart Act" aims to pressure the company to do so.
"If Walmart can find $20 billion for stock buybacks to further enrich the Waltons, it can find the money to raise the pay of its workers to a living wage," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif), who introduced the measure in the House. "It's time to put workers over wealthy corporations--across our nation, one company at a time."
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