SCHENECTADY, NY - Would you let an intuitive robot help you with inventory? Northeast Grocery, the parent company for Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Friendly Markets, has launched a pilot program featuring the Tally robot, designed by Simbe Robotics. The pilot aims to enhance inventory management, improve pricing accuracy, and elevate the overall customer shopping experience.

“As a company, we are always looking for ways to innovate and enhance both our operations and the customer experience,” said Scott Kessler, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer. “The Tally robot allows us to address inventory and pricing challenges with incredible precision while giving our store teams the tools they need to focus on what matters most—serving our customers. We’re excited to see how this AI and Robotics technology will improve our stores and are eager to evaluate its potential for expansion to other locations.”

Tally’s technology has the potential to reduce out-of-stock rates by 60 percent, identifying up to 10 times more out-of-stock items than manual store checks. A press release also explained how stores using Tally in previous pilot programs have seen a 90 percent improvement in pricing accuracy, making sure customers are charged correctly at checkout.

Tally’s detailed reporting will give stores and business intelligence teams daily actionable data, allowing them to focus on high-priority issues. This is expected to not only improve operational efficiency but also positively impact sales as stores see better product availability and pricing accuracy.

The pilot program, set to run from September 2024 through January 2025, and will be conducted in ten stores: five Price Chopper/Market 32 locations in East Greenbush, Catskill, Amsterdam, Johnstown, and Queensbury, New York, and five Tops Friendly Markets stores in Amherst (two locations), Depew, Hamburg, and Orchard Park, New York.

Northeast Grocery is the first retail grocery chain to utilize this technology across many of its markets in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

To get more details, click here for the full release.

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