![]() ![]() The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) - the labor union that represents 1.3 million workers, including more than 900,000 grocery workers at chains like Stop & Shop, Giant Food Stores, and Ralphs - knows that not all technology is bad for workplaces (opens in a new tab), but the general fear that robots can signal an intention to replace workers is extremely justified. Going forward, they want to ensure that Stop & Shop puts people first always, not just during a pandemic. ![]() It's hard for employees to forget the substantial amount of money the company dropped to deploy hundreds of robots - money that could have been used to pay human beings. Whenever workers see Marty, they're reminded of how heavily invested Stop & Shop is in these pieces of useless technology that have done nothing but create more work on the floor and make customers feel unsafe during this global health crisis. ![]() (They're meant to detect and report hazards on the floor, but they can't actually remove them.) So if an autonomous robot can't help shoppers or frontline workers in the middle of a crisis, what’s the point?Īs grocery workers continue to fight for hazard pay and risk coronavirus exposure on the job, they're calling on their company and their customers to recognize that human contributions in this pandemic have far outweighed the contributions of grocery store robots like Marty. Stop & Shop has marketed the robots as in-store safety devices. Though all robots have been fully operational since late May, customers and workers alike feel that Marty has been, at best, completely useless during the pandemic or, at worst, has made shopping and working significantly harder. The robots were initially pulled off the floors to prioritize customer safety, but then gradually reintroduced over the next two months. When states began issuing stay-at-home orders in March, panicked shoppers flooded stores to stock up on supplies. ![]() The robots have been a source of problems since their arrival (opens in a new tab), but as the pandemic has reshaped the shopping experience complaints that Marty prevents proper social distancing (opens in a new tab) have started to pop up. They put these robots, which cost a whopping $35,000 each, in hundreds of Stop & Shops and other stores (opens in a new tab)throughout the U.S. Marty was introduced by Ahold Delhaize, Stop & Shop's Netherlands-based parent company. ![]()
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