As Instacart continues to become a bigger part of consumers’ lives, the grocery delivery service could turn to robots to help with its warehouse load, according to the Financial Times.
The newspaper reports that “For almost a year, the company has been researching ways to automate the picking process. Last spring, Instacart sent out proposal requests to at least five companies that offer robotic systems that would pick goods from purpose-built ‘dark’ warehouses instead of store shelves.”
As the Financial Times put it, such a move could “revolutionize” Instacart, which has enjoyed massive growth during the pandemic. “It is also likely to revive fears among its grocery store partners that the company may one day attempt to go it alone, buoyed by years of insights from shopping data, a claim that Instacart has strongly and repeatedly denied.”
Source: Progressive Grocer