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Walmart to invest $16.3M in Nevada, including robot janitors

The retail company plans to invest $16.3 million in innovations in Nevada this year, which means some shoppers will be accompanied by robots as they pick up their online order or wander through select stores. This is part of their journey to become the retail store of choice, the employer of choice. “Retail is changing. And we’re changing with it.”

The upgrades are part of Walmart’s plan to invest $11 billion in stores nationwide. While all states will be seeing new innovation in some form.

Nevada is one of Walmart’s “key states” in these rollouts.

Five Nevada stores will see pickup towers put in place this year. The 16-foot-tall machines can fulfill a customer’s online order within a minute of their arrival; the buyer just has to scan a barcode on their smartphone and the device retrieves their item.

Another 15 stores will be seeing FAST unloaders — a device that automatically scans and sorts items unloaded from trucks — and autonomous floor scrubbers. The company hasn’t yet released which stores will be seeing the new technology.

Consumers who don’t have the time or energy to shop in-person will now also have the option to pick up or have their groceries delivered from select stores.

Walmart’s large, warehouse-style layout can make shopping a hassle for consumers, a disadvantage when compared with other, smaller supermarkets.

Walmart is already a leader in the space. Along with Amazon, the two account for a combined 28 percent of online grocery sales.