A customer shops for bananas at a Walmart Neighborhood Market, Wednesday, April 24, 2019, in Levittown, N.Y. High resolution cameras suspended from the ceiling point to the table of bananas and determine from the color of the bananas how ripe they are. When a banana starts to bruise, that would send an alert to an associate to replenish. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
LEVITTOWN, New York: Who’s minding the store? In the not-too-distant future it could be cameras and sensors that can tell almost instantly when bruised bananas need to be swapped for fresh ones and more cash registers need to open before lines get too long.
Walmart, which faces fierce competition from Amazon and other online retailers, is experimenting with digitising its physical stores to manage them more efficiently, keep costs under control and make the shopping experience more pleasant. On April 25, the retail giant opened its Intelligent Retail Lab inside a 50,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market grocery store on Long Island.
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