Robots Are Coming To Retail

Anyone walking into the Lowe’s Companies, Inc. LOW owned Orchard Supply Hardware store in San Jose, California later this month might be greeted by OSHbot, a robotic shopping assistant, according to the company.

OSHbot would ask customers if they need help and, if so, guide them to the right department in the hardware store.

Related: The Future Of Shopping Has Arrived And Its Name Is OSHbot

First Of Its Kind

According to The Wall Street Journal, the “first of its kind” 5-foot tall white robot utilizes natural-language-processing technology and houses two large rectangular screens (front and back) for conferencing with a store expert and for in-house advertising.

A 3-D scanner in the robot’s head would help customers identify items and the machine was designed to converse in both English and Spanish. Other languages would be added later.

The video below describes how OSHbot works.

Now that Lowe’s has opened the door, so to speak, who in the retail space will follow? And to what degree?

According to the International Federation of Robotics, between 2014 and 2017 more than 400 public relations robots, like Lowe’s OSHbot would be sold and put to use.

While those are not groundbreaking numbers, they represent the tip of the robot iceberg.

McDonald’s

Thanks to pressure from competitors like ChipotleMexican Grill, Inc. CMG and Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM McDonald’s Corporation MCD has had to search for more ways to save money and grow the bottom line.

One big cost factor has been labor. Protests, strikes and legal rulings have not helped McDonald’s in that arena.

Forbes suggested that one solution would be to install robot cooks.

For now, the extent of anything remotely robotic at McDonald’s has been confined to digital touch screen kiosks in Australia.

However, as Forbes said, it remains to be seen whether robots will replace cooks at the world’s largest fast food chain.

Nestle

Engadget reported that Nestle SA NSRGY bought 20 Softbank Corp Ord’s SFTBF Pepper robots to use as public relations droids in Japan.

According to the website, if the trial turned out to be successful, the company eventually could have as many as 1,000 of its robots hawking Nestle products all over the country.

Related: Don't Be Scared, But Robots Are On The Verge Of 'Revolutionizing' Manufacturing

Hointer Beta Store

In a move sure to be copied by other clothiers, Seattle, Washington retailer, Hointer Beta Store, which caters to men, lets the gents shop quickly and efficiently using just their smartphone and the store’s steel cable robotic system.

Customers select clothing in their size, which is deposited in their dressing room in about 30 seconds. No human interaction required.

Purchases can be made from the fitting room using an included tablet and a credit card.

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco  had no position in any mentioned securities.