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Mingle with Pepper the robot at the grocery store

It's not every day you meet a robot in an ICA store. Pepper the robot has now premiered at ICA Maxi Universitetet in Örebro. Pepper moved around in the store, mingled with customers, and ended up in the checkout queue, which prompted the "regular" customers to kindly line up behind.

Pepper the robot has made its first visit to an ICA store. The reason behind is that several ICA retailers have shown interest in the digital colleague. Patrik Persson, retailer at ICA Maxi Universitetet in Örebro, is one of them, and his store had the honor to be first store to get a visit.

Patrik and Pepper got together for a quick selfie.

Why did you want to invite Pepper to your store?

- If ICA is to be the market leader in the future, I believe we must be brave and invest and test new solutions for everyday chores. Robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and similar future technologies will simplify people's everyday lives, and we want to be a part of this. In our business plan for 2020, we have included robotics in different varieties as a focus area for ICA Maxi Universitetet. Pepper is part of a future investment and we hope that in the next few years we can see more robotic helpers in the store, says Patrik.

Will robots such as Pepper replace store employees?

- No, I do not think so. I rather think that robots will contribute to another level of service that we cannot afford in the stores today - to give the store visit a little golden edge.

 

Pepper's partner in the store was Pär Lundvik, tech-lead at the innovation hub ICAx.

Pär, why does ICA look at robots as helpers?

- We want to experiment with a clear trend - robots in retail and social interactions with robots. Automation is an interesting approach and, in this case, we want to simplify for staff by removing repetitive tasks, for example responding to the exact same question or informing about the same thing 100 times a day, says Pär Lundvik.

- We are currently experimenting with Pepper to find out how the customer reacts to robots in a store environment. We believe that robots can enhance the customer's experience in future stores.

What did the customers think of Pepper?

- Almost all customers and even the store staff wanted Pepper to help them find items in the store. Of course, many children and parents were curious. The highlight was when Pepper appeared in the checkout queue. A customer kindly queued behind Pepper and waited, says Pär and laughs.

• Pepper is a robot model developed in France, but is now available worldwide.
• The retail chain Carrefour in France, for example, has started using Pepper in several stores. The robot can, among other things, help customers find products and suggest recipes.
• You can find Pepper at airports and train stations around the world, where the robot can answer frequently asked customer questions.
• If you want to meet Pepper in real life - go to the exhibition Robots at the Technical Museum in Stockholm.
• Read more about Pepper: https://www.softbankrobotics.com/us/pepper

 

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