Host Mike Graen continues his conversation with Tyler Davis from Woodman's and Mark Shake from Badger Technologies focused on the impact of the robot on pricing discrepancies, out-of-stocks, and incorrect products.
The robot identifies issues like wrong products and out-of-stocks, saving labor by organizing tags by location and improving online order fulfillment. It also helps in inventory management, reducing shrinkage, and ensuring accurate product placement. The robot's data is used across the business, from district managers to buyers, and it has been well-received by store employees. Future plans include integrating RFID technology for better inventory tracking.
The conversation emphasizes the importance of leveraging technology to automate routine tasks and improve overall store efficiency.
Transcripts
Mike Graen:
So awesome, Tyler, we double clicked on the pricing
Mike Graen:
part of that. When we watched that video, a virtual video of
Mike Graen:
the robot going down. It said pricing discrepancy, and I'm
Mike Graen:
assuming that's the price at the register versus the price at the
Mike Graen:
shelf, the two are different. But also some things I saw, some
Mike Graen:
things that said out of stocks and incorrect products tell us
Mike Graen:
the difference between those and specifically, how did you check
Mike Graen:
that before you had a robot, versus how do you do it now that
Mike Graen:
you have a robot?
Tyler Davis:
So an out of stock is truly it's an out of stock
Tyler Davis:
product. Before the orders would walk up and down the aisles
Tyler Davis:
looking for empty holes in the shelf, and then they'd scan and
Tyler Davis:
it'd be, yes, it's in stock. No, it's not. And they'd order their
Tyler Davis:
products. Now we can use the out of stocks created from the robot
Tyler Davis:
to glue into the lists at the warehouse of what is truly in
Tyler Davis:
stock at the warehouse, and create lists of items that need
Tyler Davis:
to be ordered. We can also then take that list and compile it
Tyler Davis:
into days throughout the week, and we can use it as almost
Tyler Davis:
scorecards to be able to see, you know, is the order
Tyler Davis:
consistently missing these areas. Are we missing items that
Tyler Davis:
are in stock at the warehouse, which is helping our warehouse
Tyler Davis:
partners be able to move their product through faster, and then
Tyler Davis:
wrong products are when the wrong product is stocked in
Tyler Davis:
front of a tag that it doesn't belong. So if chocolate's in
Tyler Davis:
front of vanilla, it's going to let us know that during covid,
Tyler Davis:
we would what we called landfill, or we would take
Tyler Davis:
product and fill it into out of stocks that we can't fulfill at
Tyler Davis:
that point in time, to keep the shelves at least looking full,
Tyler Davis:
the robot was able to identify these items, and quickly, we
Tyler Davis:
were able to fix it with the inventories from the warehouse
Tyler Davis:
based on the wrong product in the robot, we would say, Oh,
Tyler Davis:
this is now valid product that we can order, let's get the
Tyler Davis:
product reason to fill the spot out and put the right product
Tyler Davis:
back in. So
Mike Graen:
prior to bot, I understand the pricing thing.
Mike Graen:
You scanned every label. You said the wrong matches, etc. How
Mike Graen:
did you do that for the out of stocks that you have to go and
Mike Graen:
have them scan holes, and then how did you do the incorrect
Mike Graen:
price or incorrect product?
Tyler Davis:
The incorrect product, a lot of time was just
Tyler Davis:
left until the incorrect product ran out and it was reordered
Tyler Davis:
because there was a hole so it could take the even though the
Tyler Davis:
warehouse then had its stock fulfilled, we might not actually
Tyler Davis:
see it on the sales floor for a long period of time afterwards,
Tyler Davis:
if no one went through and physically saw, Oh, that tag is
Tyler Davis:
not correct. It was this kind of a whole gap in procedure
Mike Graen:
that big. Yeah. And actually, when you think about,
Mike Graen:
I mean, I've never quite thought about this before, your scan,
Mike Graen:
your shelf label and your register could be completely
Mike Graen:
100% in sync, but if the wrong products there, I think I'm
Mike Graen:
buying the few dollars, but it's really priced at $4 it's not a
Mike Graen:
pricing issue with somebody plugged. We call it a plug or
Mike Graen:
incorrect item. So, so, so what you're saying is this robot's
Mike Graen:
basically going around autonomously and giving you a
Mike Graen:
set of, hey, we just scanned aisles number one, two and four.
Mike Graen:
Here are the five things that we got to go fix. We're saving the
Mike Graen:
associate from having to go physically scan all this and
Mike Graen:
collect all this data. Is this the big is that the big win?
Tyler Davis:
There's so many big wins. locationn data was
Tyler Davis:
honestly our probably biggest win, the location data allows us
Tyler Davis:
to organize the tags by location. So instead of having
Tyler Davis:
pricing hang up, you know, 1000 sale tags in a day, and they're
Tyler Davis:
all organized by UPC, which is spread out across 23 aisles in
Tyler Davis:
the grocery department, they can now print their tags by
Tyler Davis:
location, and they can start at one end of an aisle, go down one
Tyler Davis:
side, up the other side, down the next aisle. So that was huge
Tyler Davis:
labor save. We do all of our own order picking for online order
Tyler Davis:
fulfillment that is picked up at the store. Those pick lists are
Tyler Davis:
organized by the location provided by the robot, which is
Tyler Davis:
a huge save in time and efficiency for our online
Tyler Davis:
fulfillment. Clint had taken the original robot locations and
Tyler Davis:
sent them back to our one of our wholesalers, and said we would
Tyler Davis:
like it if these items could be put as close to location as
Tyler Davis:
possible, to at least group together so we're not breaking
Tyler Davis:
down pallets as far as we have to. We can maybe run a pallet
Tyler Davis:
out to an aisle instead. So location is huge. Another thing
Tyler Davis:
just knowing it's there, if we have, you know, 360,000 ish UPCS
Tyler Davis:
on file at Woodman. So if you tell me to run a, you know,
Tyler Davis:
sales movement on a category. So I can run sales moving on the
Tyler Davis:
category, but everything that's a zero, I can say, well, it
Tyler Davis:
doesn't sell, but is it on the floor? I don't know. In that
Tyler Davis:
past six months now, the robot can say, I've identified that
Tyler Davis:
tag. It exists on the shelf. The product has not sold in X amount
Tyler Davis:
of time. So that's another thing that we use a lot, just knowing
Tyler Davis:
exactly what's there.
Mike Graen:
So I spent about 25 years with PNG, as you probably
Mike Graen:
know, and then one of the big things that the suppliers talk
Mike Graen:
about is this thing called distribution void, and that
Mike Graen:
basically means I'm supposed to have 20 cans or flavors of
Mike Graen:
Pringles in the store. That's back when PNG owned Pringles.
Mike Graen:
They sold it to kelanova, and that's been sold again as of
Mike Graen:
today, which is amazing, poor Pringles. But anyway, Pringles
Mike Graen:
are supposed to have these 20 flavors of Pringles, but there's
Mike Graen:
only 18 labels representing Pringles. Which are the two that
Mike Graen:
should be there or not? Are you actually using the robot to go
Mike Graen:
these are the one these are the 100,000 items we should see in
Mike Graen:
the store. And what is the robot seeing? Is there some that are
Mike Graen:
missing? Because not only the products not there, but the
Mike Graen:
label's not there. Do we? Do we use it for that as well?
Tyler Davis:
Absolutely. We send back every file collected by
Tyler Davis:
each store's robot independently to the office, and we combine
Tyler Davis:
them all together, and then we compare each store against that
Tyler Davis:
list and find all the missing items and identify. And a lot of
Tyler Davis:
our buyers have gone to auto shipping those items to the
Tyler Davis:
store to make sure that fulfillment is there. Um, they,
Tyler Davis:
yeah, they pass it on to our wholesalers that and wow, they
Tyler Davis:
deploy there. Look, need be, yep,
Mike Graen:
wow,
Mike Graen:
huge, huge. So here's a here's a question, you were you were
Mike Graen:
associate in the store. You came over and saw this robot. You
Mike Graen:
were skeptic. You got asigned the project. What are the rest
Mike Graen:
of your store employees reaction to this was, was this a man?
Mike Graen:
This looks like it'd be helpful. Or when I've seen kind of stuff,
Mike Graen:
the initial reaction they're trying to get rid of me, and
Mike Graen:
they're trying to automate my job with the robot. What's some
Mike Graen:
of the reactions?
Tyler Davis:
At first, it was skeptical, kind of like I did.
Tyler Davis:
They weren't really sure what was going on where employee owns
Tyler Davis:
so whenever the company does something, they always look at
Tyler Davis:
it like, oh, well, that could have been retirement money or
Tyler Davis:
somewhere, you know, allocated somewhere else. So everybody was
Tyler Davis:
very skeptical the minute that they started utilizing the
Tyler Davis:
locations and seeing the accuracy, it has been
Tyler Davis:
overwhelmingly support for the robots. They love it. I can
Tyler Davis:
vouch for that. We just did a remodel on one of our stores,
Tyler Davis:
and the robot has been just taking a break and had the
Tyler Davis:
summer off for about past two, maybe three months, they have
Tyler Davis:
been chomping at the bit to get that robot back in action, left
Tyler Davis:
and right. I get a text message or an email every day. What is
Tyler Davis:
it happening? When is the robot going to be back? When? When is
Tyler Davis:
he joining the team again? So, yeah, it's uh, they do they
Tyler Davis:
actually give
Mike Graen:
it? Do they actually give them names? Like it so that
Mike Graen:
they love to
Tyler Davis:
they do names, um, we actually have the robot at
Tyler Davis:
the store that we share a parking lot with wrapped, um,
Tyler Davis:
our Clint. Phil clint's Dad is on the robot. Philbot, they have
Tyler Davis:
it named
Mike Graen:
we finally some. We finally found something for the
Mike Graen:
owner to do
Tyler Davis:
exactly.
Mike Graen:
I love it. I love it. Mark for other customers
Mike Graen:
that we're dealing with outside of Woodmans. Are you seeing
Mike Graen:
similar skepticism by some of the store associates? Or is it a
Mike Graen:
short term thing where you see some skepticism and then you go,
Mike Graen:
Oh, I don't have to do that anymore. That's awesome. Or are
Mike Graen:
there somewhere there? My god, they're going to get rid of my
Mike Graen:
job. Because that's a real concern that people have
Mike Graen:
Gotcha
Mark Shake:
Oh, absolutely. And I think you bring up a good
Mark Shake:
keep it as well.
Mark Shake:
point, right? I mean, this is a very disruptive it's a different
Mark Shake:
way of doing business for a retailer. And obviously folks
Mark Shake:
who have been in that retail space, whether it's a grocery or
Mark Shake:
hardware store, have been doing that product for some time,
Mark Shake:
especially some of the longer, you know, tenured folks, and
Mark Shake:
they are skeptical So, and that's really why one of my
Mark Shake:
primary responsibilities is working with partners like
Mark Shake:
Woodman's and ahold and others here in the US around the change
Mark Shake:
management and adoption. Because this is not a sell a widget,
Mark Shake:
walk away. This is really us, you know, offering a solution,
Mark Shake:
becoming a partner and vetting us, our solution within
Mark Shake:
architecture and infrastructure, the customer, the retailer, and
Mark Shake:
how they, at the end of the day, are serving their customers. So
Mark Shake:
we work with the retail teams on, you know, participating
Mark Shake:
stand ups to ensure that, hey, the robot is not, you know, gray
Mark Shake:
folks with brand their beard like me think they hear robot.
Mark Shake:
They think, oh, it's taking my job. Well, most retailers today
Mark Shake:
have a now hiring sign, right? So that's no longer the case.
Mark Shake:
So that's, that's the store side of that, and that's good. You
Mark Shake:
Robotics back in my day. Growing up is much different in
Mark Shake:
manufacturing facility compared to a robot who's in store today
Mark Shake:
collecting data. So it's it's really intended to offload those
Mark Shake:
routine tasks from that team member working in the store so
Mark Shake:
they no longer have to do that type of work. So I think of
Mark Shake:
those skeptics, you're going to win some over you're always
Mark Shake:
going to have some that are probably not going to be happy
Mark Shake:
also have some skeptics, but over time, it's like, I didn't
Mark Shake:
with it. But at the end of the day, our reception, our the way
Mark Shake:
want, I didn't really, so it was like Tyler was saying I didn't
Mark Shake:
the robot is perceived and and received in the store, has been
Mark Shake:
very, very positive. It's really become a branding and as as the
Mark Shake:
Philbot would attest, and as other retailers using our
Mark Shake:
solutions have attest is it becomes a branding opportunity,
Mark Shake:
really, for the marketing folks, and to leverage that with the
Mark Shake:
future customers that are going to be walking in the store. Kids
Mark Shake:
love robotics. They're not intimidated by technologies.
Mark Shake:
Younger generations so but, but we're a part of that change with
Mark Shake:
our retail partners, and dealing with the change management and
Mark Shake:
how that's it really can be customized to the individual
Mark Shake:
retailer, but we're excited about stuff Woodmans is doing.
Mark Shake:
We love the Philbot. I think there's also opportunities you
Mark Shake:
could have Heinz ketchup bottles running around the store. You
Mark Shake:
could have a PepsiCo bottle or whatever. So there's some
Mark Shake:
opportunities there.
Mark Shake:
enjoy doing all that scanning by hand. I'm the exceptions. What
Mark Shake:
about customers? Now, you said, You guys both kind of mentioned
Mark Shake:
the younger generation is probably more receptive to that.
Mark Shake:
And I've literally seen a couple of videos where young children
Mark Shake:
are trying to feed the robot, which is hilarious and adorable,
Mark Shake:
but but talk to us about the customers, and you've obviously
Mark Shake:
got very, very young people. You got very, very elderly people
Mark Shake:
that are shopping in your stores. Tyler, what's their
Mark Shake:
reaction? It's like, oh my gosh. What is going on here? Or how do
Mark Shake:
they react to it?
Tyler Davis:
Lots of questions. I think we got Lucky by the fact
Tyler Davis:
that we deployed ours during covid. A lot of people didn't
Tyler Davis:
just kind of assume they were shelf cleaning robots, and they
Tyler Davis:
just kind of let it be. But now they see them still out there
Tyler Davis:
after covid, and they do ask a lot of questions. They never
Tyler Davis:
really know what it is exactly, but once you stop and explain it
Tyler Davis:
to them, a lot of people of people are very impressed by the
Tyler Davis:
fact that it does all that it does. And they were like, I had
Tyler Davis:
no idea you could do things like that now. So it's really neat.
Tyler Davis:
You hear a lot of times ordering robot, they kind of just assume
Tyler Davis:
too that's safely it's probably what it's doing. Yeah, that does
Tyler Davis:
so much more. Yeah.
Mark Shake:
I think one of the big things for right around
Mark Shake:
those folks is, when you're it's simple talking point for that
Mark Shake:
Woodmans team member of the store answering that question,
Mark Shake:
because it's normally not mark in there, right? It's, that's
Mark Shake:
why we've got to work with those teams. But when they're
Mark Shake:
answering the question, you know, the robots here to ensure
Mark Shake:
the right products on the shelf at the right time, at the right
Mark Shake:
price and as well as to make a clean, safe environment for the
Mark Shake:
other piece of the solution, right? So, and I think they
Mark Shake:
quickly understand why, you know, why the robot is there,
Mike Graen:
yeah, and Tyler, here's, here's an interesting
Mike Graen:
segue that I've never even thought of before. But forget
Mike Graen:
about Woodmans for a second. If you go into any other grocery
Mike Graen:
store and they don't have 100,000 items, maybe they have
Mike Graen:
50,000 items. If you went to the store manager and said, Could
Mike Graen:
you tell me within the last two hours, what percentage of your
Mike Graen:
50,000 items are actually available for the customer to
Mike Graen:
buy, they wouldn't have a clue. I have no idea. They go to an in
Mike Graen:
stock report that shows them on hand versus sales, and they
Mike Graen:
guess, oh, well, we're probably about 92% on shelf. They don't
Mike Graen:
know. They have no idea. You literally have a machine, very
Mike Graen:
friendly machine, very tall machine, very quiet machine that
Mike Graen:
literally is telling you last within the last two hours, we
Mike Graen:
can tell you that we have the 100,000 SKUs we have, we have
Mike Graen:
99% in stock, on shelf, available for you, and we know
Mike Graen:
the 1% we don't. Nobody else can do that, nobody, there's no
Mike Graen:
retailer that can do that, right.
Tyler Davis:
Not without the assistance of a robot.
Mike Graen:
What they do, and this is interesting, and not to
Mike Graen:
get on this topic. What they do is they use their online picking
Mike Graen:
they said, well, our customers have ordered this. Our
Mike Graen:
associates went to go pick those 10 items. They couldn't find two
Mike Graen:
of them, so we're 80% on shelf. That's the only way they can do
Mike Graen:
it. Based upon the fact that they've got pickers picking the
Mike Graen:
products. Well, you're letting your disappointed customers
Mike Graen:
drive your replenishment, which is really not the good way of
Mike Graen:
doing it, right? So props to you, because you can answer the
Mike Graen:
questions that people can't do. So let's talk about some of the
Mike Graen:
future stuff. So on shelf, availability, pricing, accuracy,
Mike Graen:
certainly spill detection all those are really good. A lot is
Mike Graen:
going on retail right now about retail shrink, shrink. Retail
Mike Graen:
shrink is basically unaccounted for inventory, and everybody
Mike Graen:
booms those people who are stealing power tools at Lowe's
Mike Graen:
or Home Depot or whatever, and I'm sure that's part of it, but,
Mike Graen:
but do you believe that, and not only specific numbers, right?
Mike Graen:
But do you believe that just having a physical robot in the
Mike Graen:
store, automated going up in the aisle will potentially deter
Mike Graen:
potential theft in your stores,
Tyler Davis:
possibly. I mean, as you know, if they don't know
Tyler Davis:
what exactly the robot is, I can see that being something I'm not
Tyler Davis:
sure.
Mike Graen:
Do think that that? Do you think shrink is, is, is
Mike Graen:
an opportunity for, for, I mean, shrink in general is higher than
Mike Graen:
it has been in most retailers. It's growing, right? I don't
Mike Graen:
know about your stores, and again, I don't want any specific
Mike Graen:
numbers, but most retailers are coming to me and saying, it used
Mike Graen:
to be somewhere between 1 to 2% of sales. Now it's creeping up
Mike Graen:
to 3 to 4% for a lot of different reasons. Right? Do you
Mike Graen:
think the robot has a play in the identification of shrink, or
Mike Graen:
do you think a use case that we need to have other technologies
Mike Graen:
doing?
Tyler Davis:
No absolutely. We currently use it for to help
Tyler Davis:
combat shrink in a couple different ways. I have had LP
Tyler Davis:
departments reach out to me and ask for the most up to date
Tyler Davis:
picture that the robot has gone through on that shelf to say,
Tyler Davis:
okay, there was product here at 10am this morning and now. And
Tyler Davis:
it looked like it was full in this image, but now it's all
Tyler Davis:
gone, and there's no sales through the point of sale today.
Tyler Davis:
So that was that we also use it again to know things around the
Tyler Davis:
shelf. As we go through the shelves, we say, hey, we
Tyler Davis:
identified this tag. We look at this last sold date of that
Tyler Davis:
item. This item hasn't sold in a year. Is that even the right
Tyler Davis:
product behind it? Or did the UPC change and we're just got a
Tyler Davis:
wrong tag? Or, hey, this product needs to be rotated. The dates
Tyler Davis:
need to be checked on it, verified as we have now begun
Tyler Davis:
moving into the frozen and fresh departments with the robot and
Tyler Davis:
scanning indoors, we're going to start looking at Dairy items I
Tyler Davis:
haven't sold in the last two weeks. Is Is there an out of
Tyler Davis:
stock? Okay, we don't care. But, oh, there was no out of stock,
Tyler Davis:
and there was no wrong product on that, and the product hasn't
Tyler Davis:
sold in two weeks. Does that need to be reduced in sales now
Tyler Davis:
to help move it along before we have to take a total loss on
Tyler Davis:
that product or reduce it even further than it needs to
Tyler Davis:
necessarily be. So we are going to start looking at all
Tyler Davis:
different ways to combat shrink with the robot and just being
Tyler Davis:
able to know that that truly exists, that it's not just
Tyler Davis:
another UPC that doesn't show sales on the computer.
Mike Graen:
Wow, that's huge. That's huge Mark. I will put
Mike Graen:
this question on you. We're starting to see with grocery
Mike Graen:
items, computer vision be that primary way to know if the
Mike Graen:
products on the shelf or not. A lot of the stuff that's in
Mike Graen:
Woodman cereal, cans of soup, etc, etc, etc. There's a lot of
Mike Graen:
retailers out there who also are in the, what I'm going to call
Mike Graen:
the apparel and general merchandise space that are
Mike Graen:
starting to use other sensor technologies, like radio
Mike Graen:
frequency identification to do that. Does it? Do you ever see a
Mike Graen:
day where a potential robot could actually consume those
Mike Graen:
RFID tags in addition to computer vision, or is that even
Mike Graen:
on your roadmap, or other people doing that? Anything you want to
Mike Graen:
comment there?
Mark Shake:
Yes, the answer would be yes. Clearly, we do
Mark Shake:
have a roadmap for our solutions, and it really does to
Mark Shake:
your point, Mike, it's driven by, you know, being compatible
Mark Shake:
with other sensor type technologies, as well as
Mark Shake:
development of additional sensors within existing
Mark Shake:
solutions. So, you know, there's ways to integrate our existing
Mark Shake:
robots in with fixed cameras, per se. There's also ways to
Mark Shake:
leverage in the robot to really begin collection of RFID type,
Mark Shake:
you know, inventory when stores have the appropriate tagging in
Mark Shake:
place with with their products. So, yes, we we've got a very
Mark Shake:
defined roadmap, some some of which is made public. Other, you
Mark Shake:
know, is yet to be developed. But clearly there's a vision for
Mark Shake:
us and where we're going with this solution, tying into,
Mark Shake:
again, you know, we've got a fully autonomous roaming
Mark Shake:
computer that's leveraging AI computer vision today, so it
Mark Shake:
makes total sense for us to continue to leverage on that
Mark Shake:
platform, if you will. Of this additional sensor type
Mark Shake:
technologies, and RFID is clearly one one that's at the
Mark Shake:
forefront right now because of its renewed popularity, I should
Mark Shake:
say, with retailers really beginning to adopt it.
Mike Graen:
Yeah, and that not to, not to divert us at all. But
Mike Graen:
Tyler, one of the things you should be aware of is there are
Mike Graen:
retailers out there that are actively looking. For the
Mike Graen:
implementation of RFID technology for food,
Mike Graen:
specifically like bakery, to be able to because the robot today,
Mike Graen:
we talked about a lot of stuff the robot can do. One of the
Mike Graen:
things the robot can't do is count. I can see the box of Pop
Mike Graen:
Tarts, but I can't read behind it. If you start putting RFID
Mike Graen:
tags on things like bakery and other produce items, etc, that
Mike Graen:
thing can actually count as well, which is extremely
Mike Graen:
powerful. And with the RFID technology that's out there, you
Mike Graen:
can actually embed the date that you bake that product, and so
Mike Graen:
you can know that three days from now that has to get marked
Mike Graen:
down. And all that data collection could happen with
Mike Graen:
potentially robot. I'm not trying to oversell it, but Mark
Mike Graen:
and I have been talking about the other use cases that I think
Mike Graen:
retailers would take a look at. So in addition to that, let's
Mike Graen:
just we got a couple more minutes left. I want to I want
Mike Graen:
to give you guys a chance to share any closing comments.
Mike Graen:
Obviously this is really good for the wall, for the for the
Mike Graen:
w\Woodmans Associates in stores, because it helps automate their
Mike Graen:
process. Are there other, re other interested parties, things
Mike Graen:
like suppliers or direct store delivery people? You mentioned
Mike Graen:
the the asset protection people that might be interested. What
Mike Graen:
are some of the other use users of this that potentially might
Mike Graen:
be interested in this kind of data? Because I don't believe, I
Mike Graen:
don't know Mark of anybody who's literally giving realogram
Mike Graen:
information real time or not real time, but close to real
Mike Graen:
time, like this solution does, is there other people out there
Mike Graen:
that could be interested in taking advantage of this data as
Mike Graen:
well.
Tyler Davis:
For us, we use it at all levels of our business.
Tyler Davis:
The district managers can use the images collected, or we also
Tyler Davis:
run an aisle totals. So everything that's scanned is
Tyler Davis:
counted by the robot. I can tell you how many items are in an
Tyler Davis:
aisle, how many items are in a section, so they look at that.
Tyler Davis:
Our buyers utilize the pictures a lot of times, the scorecards
Tyler Davis:
for different department heads, as we're spread out across the
Tyler Davis:
entire state of Wisconsin and and through a lot of Northern
Tyler Davis:
Illinois, it's just takes a long time to drive to a store. So we
Tyler Davis:
do use it throughout the entire business, not just at the store
Tyler Davis:
level, but I think that there is something for other companies as
Tyler Davis:
the data is collected and ways to monetize some of that and
Tyler Davis:
utilize it across the industry to kind of help, you know, maybe
Tyler Davis:
the brokers who are sending people out to the stores to say,
Tyler Davis:
is this product on shelf? Is this product not on shelf? Is it
Tyler Davis:
in the warehouse? The robot being able to provide the
Tyler Davis:
reporting would be useful? Could be useful,
Mark Shake:
yeah, so Tyler's okay. I was just going to add to
Mark Shake:
that, to Tyler's point. I mean, we are working three sellers
Mark Shake:
today just to stand up, really, what we're referring to as a
Mark Shake:
Supplier Success program, if you will. It's right giving you
Mark Shake:
know, obviously, at the end of the day, suppliers supporting
Mark Shake:
Woodmans want to move more of their products out of their
Mark Shake:
stores, and I'm certain that Clint Woodman and Tyler want to
Mark Shake:
move more of the products out of their stores. So why not get
Mark Shake:
visibility and help this supplier become more successful
Mark Shake:
by giving them visibility to this same data that the robot's
Mark Shake:
collecting? And we've been able to start that program up with
Mark Shake:
Woodmans team and their support, really with the test testing of
Mark Shake:
it for some time, but then we're in deployment of that now. So,
Mark Shake:
and we've seen some legs with that with some other retailers.
Mark Shake:
So really, it's a retailers program that they can stand up
Mark Shake:
in partnership with Badger to make for successful retail
Mark Shake:
supplier relationship. So
Mike Graen:
Well, I would think, I would think a couple things.
Mike Graen:
Number one, I've been on the supplier side of PNG and then
Mike Graen:
the retailer side, working with Walmart for a total of about 40
Mike Graen:
years. But I spent a couple years with a company called
Mike Graen:
Crossmark. They're a broker like an Acosta or an Advantage or
Mike Graen:
folks like that, and we would literally send people to a store
Mike Graen:
in the first of the time in the store, if they did a one hour
Mike Graen:
call for PNG in the store. The first 45 minutes were taking
Mike Graen:
pictures and doing surveys and collected in store conditions.
Mike Graen:
Well, this data, I would, literally, before I walk into
Mike Graen:
the store, know exactly I'm walking into. And I would, I
Mike Graen:
would certainly think Tyler with your direct store business, your
Mike Graen:
direct store is the cheese and the milk and the Pepsi guys and
Mike Graen:
all that kind of stuff, that knowing exactly what that store
Mike Graen:
looked like before you ever get out of your truck would be
Mike Graen:
enormously helpful, just as it is for for your own associates,
Mike Graen:
right? Absolutely.
Tyler Davis:
Yeah. How much help do I need to divert to that
Tyler Davis:
store today? Are their reports looking better? Are they? You
Tyler Davis:
know, maybe this side of town's a little busier than that side
Tyler Davis:
of town. So, yeah, here's a lot of the information around labor
Tyler Davis:
that I don't even think has been completely explored yet.
Tyler Davis:
Yeah, well, let me, let
Mike Graen:
me kind of wrap this up. This has been incredible
Mike Graen:
conversation. Thank you guys, and I really enjoy the
Mike Graen:
opportunity to have a retailer and a solution provider sit
Mike Graen:
together, because you get both sides of it. And that's why I
Mike Graen:
was kind of picking on you guys a little bit, making yourself
Mike Graen:
What was your side of the story? Because, because there's always
Mike Graen:
two sides to every story, sometimes you hear these
Mike Graen:
podcasts and it's just about a solution provider talking about
Mike Graen:
their great stuff, and you just want to go, I wonder if their
Mike Graen:
customer thinks it's as great as they I mean that this gives us
Mike Graen:
an opportunity to say you had an opportunity, you had an ongoing
Mike Graen:
business that was successful. You're spending a lot of time in
Mike Graen:
labor, doing things that, frankly, we should have
Mike Graen:
technology doing, and you delivered it. So my closing
Mike Graen:
question, I'll start with you, Mark, and then I'll let Tyler,
Mike Graen:
you kind of close us out. But What questions did I not ask you
Mike Graen:
that I should have or in other words, is there a closing
Mike Graen:
summary of something that we haven't talked about, that you'd
Mike Graen:
like to point out as we kind of shut down this this discussion.
Mark Shake:
Great question, Mike, you did a good job of
Mark Shake:
covering it all. First, I'd just like to stop closing just say
Mark Shake:
thanks to Tyler and Clint Woodman and all you know for
Mark Shake:
agreeing to do this, and Mike you, and the conversations on
Mark Shake:
retail team, for putting it together and inviting badger to
Mark Shake:
be a part of it with Woodman. So, you know, I think really
Mark Shake:
it's to if I could close on any one thing, it's bringing the
Mark Shake:
operations in multiple groups, different silos within a retail
Mark Shake:
establishment together as they evaluate these type of
Mark Shake:
technologies, because there's multiple use cases beyond just
Mark Shake:
what that particular department might be interested in. You
Mark Shake:
know, most often, when investments made with the
Mark Shake:
solution provider like this, you have to stand up an ROI in order
Mark Shake:
to prove out that investment, right? So when doing so, you
Mark Shake:
typically key on maybe 123, things at the most that we're
Mark Shake:
going to drive that ROI. I would encourage retailers to open that
Mark Shake:
up right as they evaluate different technologies, because
Mark Shake:
there's greater uses for the data above and beyond what Mike
Mark Shake:
just where, where they're focusing on today. And you've
Mark Shake:
heard it firsthand from Tyler, the way their their business,
Mark Shake:
they took the information we were providing and then they
Mark Shake:
leveraged it in different ways we never envision. I have other
Mark Shake:
retailers doing the same thing. So that's what I would encourage
Mark Shake:
more than anything. Maybe, as others may if you listen to this
Mark Shake:
and you're inspired to go out and give it a try, is to bring
Mark Shake:
those other stakeholders to the table, whether it's operations,
Mark Shake:
it marketing, merchandising, as you're evaluating these type of
Mark Shake:
technologies?
Mike Graen:
No, that's great. Great advice. Great advice.
Mike Graen:
Tyler, same question to you. Any any questions I should have
Mike Graen:
asked that I didn't, or any kind of closing comments that you'd
Mike Graen:
like to share.
Tyler Davis:
Only got to jump on the same, same bandwagon as
Tyler Davis:
Mark. Don't look at it as a cookie cutter solution. Think
Tyler Davis:
outside the box. You know, talk to your different levels of
Tyler Davis:
employment and say, you know, what are pain points? What if
Tyler Davis:
the robot could do something for you? What would you like it to
Tyler Davis:
do? Ask that question. I ask that a lot, and they say, you
Tyler Davis:
know, this is where I struggle, or this is a pain point or.
Tyler Davis:
Somebody's always getting after me about this. It'd be nice if I
Tyler Davis:
could know. And a lot of times, if you really think about it,
Tyler Davis:
you have if the robot's not providing you the direct answer,
Tyler Davis:
taking what the robot's providing you and adding it to
Tyler Davis:
something else you already also know you're going to have your
Tyler Davis:
answer. So just really dive in and see. Don't let any
Tyler Davis:
restrictions kind of around this project, you know, let it go.
Tyler Davis:
Test it out. Try it out. Combine what you can and
Mike Graen:
I think the fact that you came from the stores
Mike Graen:
and had that store mentality and came in with this negative
Mike Graen:
perception, this thing's just money. We don't want to do this.
Mike Graen:
We're just a good grocery store that's trying to provide value.
Mike Graen:
We're employee owned, all those kind of things. And then
Mike Graen:
suddenly it's almost like, it's almost like handing somebody,
Mike Graen:
after they've been doing long division forever. A calculator
Mike Graen:
go, oh, man, this and do for me. Yeah, I do like that. I don't
Mike Graen:
want to go back to long division again. So the favorite question
Mike Graen:
I asked the people in the store is, is really, really basic one.
Mike Graen:
What are you spending your time on today? That's important, but
Mike Graen:
you'd rather not have to do it
Tyler Davis:
exactly. That
Tyler Davis:
Great question
Mike Graen:
a good question. It just just as a sidebar. We did
Mike Graen:
that when we were working on the RFID program at Walmart. We
Mike Graen:
said, What are you doing today that you just it's a really
Mike Graen:
important work, but you absolutely hate doing it. And
Mike Graen:
their answer was, real quick, quick, which is doing inventory.
Mike Graen:
I gotta scan it item, and I gotta count every item, and I
Mike Graen:
gotta update the on hands. I know it's important, but Oh man,
Mike Graen:
that takes forever, and it's so embarrassing. I'm in the middle
Mike Graen:
of a whole stack of clothes, and a customer comes and asks me a
Mike Graen:
question, which I want to be receptive to. But I go answer
Mike Graen:
the question, I come back. Oh crap, where was I right? You get
Mike Graen:
it all? I kind of so we implemented. RFID technology,
Mike Graen:
which means I just want it, and it counts everything for me. And
Mike Graen:
after we did that for a while, I said, Well, what else do you not
Mike Graen:
like doing? Well, that, since you did that, anyone who don't
Mike Graen:
like which Tyler, which you just referred to, which is, I hate
Mike Graen:
having to print pricing labels. I'll leave on a Tuesday night,
Mike Graen:
come in on Wednesday, and I've got 500 price changes to do. I
Mike Graen:
got to take these out and take the old ones out and put the new
Mike Graen:
ones in. So in one store, we installed electronic shelf
Mike Graen:
labels that literally automatically updated and gave
Mike Graen:
the associates the ability to say, I'm stocking this item, and
Mike Graen:
the light blinks, and I put the product there. Now we're going
Mike Graen:
and you'll see these in Walmarts or, as you're seeing, a lot of
Mike Graen:
their stores now have electronic shelf labels. So it's all about
Mike Graen:
it's not about the tech. It's about asking the question, how
Mike Graen:
are you spending your time? And while you know it's important,
Mike Graen:
you'd rather not have to do this task, because you'd rather spend
Mike Graen:
more time working with customers and taking care of them, and,
Mike Graen:
frankly, taking their money, right? So guys, thank you so
Mike Graen:
Thank you, Mike, thank you, Tyler
Mike Graen:
much. This is a great success story. I am really, really
Mike Graen:
excited about the both sides of this thing. And I think, you
Mike Graen:
know, the sky's the limit. I think the robot outcome more and
Mike Graen:
more important part of it. When they start putting name badges
Mike Graen:
on the robots and disguising the robots like our owner, etc, that
Mike Graen:
tells you you got something there. They feel like they're a
Mike Graen:
part of the family, and that's really, really a good story to
Mike Graen:
me so guys, thank you very much for your time. We really do
Mike Graen:
appreciate it, and hope you have a great rest of your week.