“Tally’s” pilot program adds to Schnucks’ commitment to provide an innovative and exceptional customer experience
ST. LOUIS, 2017-Jul-28 — /EPR Retail News/ — Schnucks is turning to a high-tech partner to help maintain an exceptional shopping experience: an aisle-roving robot named Tally. Schnuck Markets, Inc. and Simbe Robotics, Inc. will collaborate to test-pilot Tally at three St. Louis metro area stores beginning July 31.
During the six-week pilot, Tally will be charged with scanning store aisles three times a day to help keep Schnucks stores fully in stock. Tally will also ensure that each product is placed correctly with its appropriate shelf tag.
Tally is an innovation designed to help provide Schnucks teammates with real-time information, making it easier to do their jobs and ultimately keep shelves full for customers, said Dave Steck, Schnucks Vice President of IT – Infrastructure. The robot will do its daily storewide scans in the morning, midday and evening.
“The data that Tally collects will be sent to Simbe, which will do on-the-spot analysis and provide us with the information we can share with our vendor partners and teammates throughout our organization to help us have the right products at the right time for our customers,” Steck said. “We’re starting Tally’s pilot with a focus on in-stock position, but we’re hopeful that Tally may open up a world of other possibilities with the shelf data it collects.”
The three St. Louis area Schnucks stores taking part in the test are:
- Schnucks Richmond Center, 6600 Clayton Road, 63117
- Schnucks Woods Mill, 1060 Woods Mill Road, 63017
- Schnucks Kirkwood, 10233 Manchester Road, 63122
“We’re excited to see what this partnership brings,” Steck said. “This is just one of many ways that Schnucks is staying at the forefront of technology to enhance our customers’ shopping experiences.”
In addition to bringing Tally to three stores, Schnucks and Simbe have engaged officials at Washington University so students and faculty can benefit from pilot learnings. Some of the potential partnerships include startups/entrepreneurship, engineering/robotics and a data “hackathon” that would allow Wash U. students to study the enormous amount of data collected by Tally and look for new ways of driving retail analytics.
Founded in St. Louis in 1939, Schnuck Markets, Inc. is a third-generation, family-owned grocery/pharmacy retailer committed to nourishing people’s lives. The company takes pride in its community partnerships and gives more than $13 million annually in food to food pantries and more than $1.7 million to not-for-profit organizations through the company’s My Schnucks Card program. Schnucks operates 100 stores in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa. Privately held, Schnucks employs 14,000 teammates and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Follow Schnucks on Facebook at www.facebook.com/schnucks.
Media Contact:
Paul Simon
314-994-4603
psimon@schnucks.com
Source: Schnuck Markets, Inc.