The Save Mart Companies offer an on-demand grocery delivery service to customers in partnership with robot delivery company Starship Technologies.
The Save Mart Cos. was the first grocer in the U.S. to work with Starship Technologies, according to a previous article of The Shelby Report. The debut of the advanced contactless delivery service embraced the flagship store’s role as an innovation lab and preceded the one-year anniversary of the store’s celebrated opening in October 2019.
“It’s 100 percent contactless,” said Jerald Smith, director of the Save Mart flagship store. “It’s 98 percent autonomous, so they literally steer themselves to the residents. A customer can go on the starship app on their mobile device; they can make their selections for their groceries; and the robots will then deliver straight to their homes.”
The robots, each of which can carry 20 pounds of groceries, travel up to four miles round trip and provide a safe, low-cost and contactless delivery alternative for Save Mart shoppers.
Smith mentioned the robots can deliver to customers anywhere. They can mark their location on the app for delivery.
“You can drop a pin [mark your location] if you’re at a baseball game and you don’t feel like leaving the game to get some snacks,” he said. “You can go on the starship app, order the groceries [and they] are delivered right to the park.
“You use your own mobile device to open the unit up. You grab your groceries, close it and it’s off back to the store.”
The robots move at pedestrian speed and use a combination of sophisticated machine learning, artificial intelligence and sensors to travel on sidewalks and navigate around obstacles. They can cross streets, climb curbs, travel at night and operate in both rain and snow.
For more information, visit thesavemartcompanies.com.
To read the full Retailer of the Year section on The Save Mart Companies by The Shelby Report, click here
