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You don’t need a reopened AMC to catch the latest Fast & Furious installment. Just turn to retailers’ new facilities in the same-day delivery wars.
In grocery: Three years into a partnership with UK grocer-meets-tech provider Ocado, Kroger unveiled its first “shed” of delivery-sorting bots. In the 375,000 sq. ft. center...
- About 1,000 Ocado robots pick and sort ~28,000 items for next-day and same-day delivery.
- Those bots can fulfill about 20 stores’ worth of orders per day.
In big box: Target’s test of sortation centers, micro fulfillment hubs that bring store-picked orders to consumers, is underway in Minneapolis. After items are sorted, gig workers from delivery service Shipt are deployed for doorstep dropoffs.
Target and Kroger aren’t competing against each other so much as with the owner of blink-and-it’s-here delivery (Amazon).
- Target believes its centers will, at the very least, make e-comm orders more profitable.
- While Kroger’s expected to double its digital business by 2023, its sheds may not be profitable for several years.
All bots, no brakes: Kroger is building around a dozen additional sheds this year, with another to open this spring. And Target plans to open five additional sortation centers this fiscal year. — HL