This article was published on June 20, 2016

Walmart considering robotic shopping carts that follow you around and tell you what to buy


Walmart considering robotic shopping carts that follow you around and tell you what to buy

Websites have suggestions, Walmart has robotic personal shoppers doubling as shopping carts — or at least it wants to.

The company is reportedly collaborating with Five Elements Robotics to help consumers ease the burden of pushing around a shopping cart, all while offering up suggestions to shoppers. The report came from last week’s Bloomberg Technology Conference, and follows another that Walmart was looking at ride-hailing services to offer at-home delivery to customers.

Walmart’s technological ambitions are becoming clear, and both moves could offer up a bit of insight into how it plans to compete with online stores that have taken a bite out of store revenue for the better part of a decade.

Hopefully, Walmart can keep these robots from escaping.

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