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Woodman's Badger Robots (Part 2)
Episode 192nd October 2024 • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast
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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.

Tyler Davis:

Thanks, Mark. Bye.

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