{"id":19037,"date":"2026-10-10T08:45:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=19037"},"modified":"2026-10-10T08:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:45:04","slug":"walmart-running-into-trouble-as-its-super-expensive-robots-cant-handle-the-realities-of-warehouse-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2026\/10\/10\/walmart-running-into-trouble-as-its-super-expensive-robots-cant-handle-the-realities-of-warehouse-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart Running Into Trouble as Its Super-Expensive Robots Can\u2019t Handle the Realities of Warehouse Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article has a couple hilarious points. The robots failing leading to Walmart spending more on the repair technicians verses lower salaried warehouse workers. And the $2.6 billion write down by Kroger of a failed automation project. And Kroger is one of the worst megacorps for tracking customers<\/a> and trying to work towards AI pricing. We rarely ever go into their King Soopers here in town even though it’s really close to the house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/futurism.com\/robots-and-machines\/walmart-trouble-expensive-robots-warehouse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
It’s an automation “arms race.”<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

By Victor Tangermann<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Symbotic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite spending billions of dollars to automate its warehouses, Walmart is seriously struggling to make even the simplest of robots work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Wall Street Journal<\/em> reports<\/a>, even something as straightforward as removing an object from a cardboard box to package it for customers is proving exceedingly challenging. After hiring several robotics companies, Walmart ultimately settled on small robots with wheels for over a dozen of its warehouses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the small robots are still unable to remove larger and heavier objects, like bags of dog food. They also break down often, showing that despite plenty of pressure to replace human workers, companies are running into major headwinds in automating real-world workflows in environments like warehouses and logistics facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Executives maintain that Walmart\u2019s automation push will result in fewer warehouse workers, transitioning many of them into managing and fixing robots. However, that transition is reportedly coming at a formidable cost. According to the WSJ<\/em>\u2018s sources at Walmart, the costs of paying mechanical and electrical engineers at its automated warehouses eclipse the payrolls of unskilled warehouse workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just Walmart. Amazon is also going to incredible lengths to automate its warehouses, creating what market-intelligence firm Interact Analysis\u2019 Rueben Scriven told the WSJ<\/em> amounts to an \u201carms race\u201d between retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet despite major financial commitments, many of these efforts are crumbling. Case in point, Kroger had to write off a whopping $2.6 billion after a major investment in an \u201cautomated fulfillment network\u201d failed to pay off<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a far more ambitious transition to humanoid warehouse robots feels like even more of a stretch. While companies are pumping billions of dollars<\/a> into the development of bipedal bots, the tech largely remains a Moonshot for practical physical labor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article has a couple hilarious points. The robots failing leading to Walmart spending more on the repair technicians verses lower salaried warehouse workers. And the $2.6 billion write down by Kroger of a failed automation project. And Kroger is one of the worst megacorps for tracking customers and trying to work towards AI pricing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19038,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19037\/revisions\/19038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}