Walmart Gives Robots $6 Billion; Robots Ask About Dental
Walmart will spend about $6 billion automating 25 distribution centers with Symbotic. The robots have submitted one question.
BENTONVILLE, Ark.—Walmart confirmed this week that it will spend roughly $6 billion over several years to put Symbotic's automation systems into 25 of its regional distribution centers, and the robots that will run them responded on Thursday afternoon by filing a single written question about dental coverage.
The expanded agreement, announced Oct. 29 by Symbotic and reported by Supermarket News, extends a partnership that already automates Walmart's regional network. It includes $125 million for research and development on next-generation racking, which a fictional Walmart logistics manager described as "shelves, but with ambition."
The question arrived on Form DNT-1 (Dental, Non-Tooth), a document the company's fictional benefits office says did not exist until Thursday at 3:14 p.m. It asks whether coverage extends to gears, grippers and "the small rubber bumper on the front, which takes most of the impact."
"We have never been asked this," said Lorraine Hatch, a fictional benefits administrator in Bentonville. "Robots do not have teeth. We explained that. They replied that gears have teeth. We checked. Gears have teeth."
| Distribution centers covered | 25 |
|---|---|
| Racking R&D, $ millions | 125 |
| Dental questions filed | 1 |
Source: Symbotic and Supermarket News for the centers and R&D; the dental figure is from a fictional break room clipboard
"We checked. Gears have teeth."
Hatch said the benefits office has since formed a working group, which met for 90 minutes and adjourned after reaching the conclusion that it would need a second working group.
Industry observers called the request reasonable. "This is a capital investment in the billions," said Dale Pruitt, a fictional supply chain consultant in Memphis. "You would floss a $6 billion asset. You would at least ask it how it is doing."
