Giant Food Stores is adding robot assistants to its stores to help improve in-store efficiencies and free up employees to work with customers, writes Donna Rovins for the Daily Local News.

Named “Marty,” the robot assistant moves autonomously around the store and detects hazards like liquid spills. It then reports these for quick corrective action.

The gray robot also has a number of scanners and cameras to help it avoid bumping into displays and people. Marty will politely move out of the way if it nears any customers.

Over the last year, Harrisburg and Carlisle stores have piloted the in-store robot.

“Bringing robotics and A.I. from a research lab to the sales floor has been a very exciting journey, and we were thrilled by the customer response in our pilot stores,” said Nicholas Bertram, president of Giant Food Stores.

Marty is already a big hit with customers, who have posted on social media and taken selfies with it.

It is expected that the rollout will be completed by the middle of this year.

Read more about the in-store robot Giant Food Stores in the Daily Local News here.

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