The capital city of Iowa is getting a glimpse into the future of supermarkets very soon, as the robot grocery store becomes a reality: a giant vending machine style of place where shippers can actually do their grocery shopping in an entirely automated fashion.
Business equipment firm Oasis24seven and nonprofit Eat Greater Des Moines have partnered up to create Robotic Detail, a robot grocery store aimed at providing easy access to quality food in those areas of the city where it isn't often the case, in a completely safe environment for customers until bigger service stores can be built.
According to BGR, there will be several robot grocery stores in the city, equipped to offer food to local at any given time of the day upon an emergency, in the most convenient way possible within the small stores.
Each of the robot grocery stores is about 260 square feet and they're all equipped with a large front window so those who are shopping there can see which products are exactly available, making things easier for them.
The robot grocery stores can hold from 200 to 800 items, all of which can be refrigerated, as well as possibly weighing anywhere between an ounce to ten pounds - very impressive indeed.
Fox News reports that these new stores work as follow: there's an extractor that retrieves the product from different racks to then go through a conveyor belt system where it will be delivered to the customer, allowing fragile items (like eggs, for example) to keep from being damaged.
As far as prices are concerned, the goal is that, in spite of the technology, they can keep them as low as a regular grocery store.
"Our goal is to keep the prices in line with a grocery store," said Aubrey Alvarez, the executive director of Eat Greater Des Moines, regarding the robot grocery store project. "We are sourcing as many items as possible through a local non-profit partner who supplies food to 12 food pantries. This will help us keep prices as low as possible."
