By Megan Gent
Contributing Writer

 With her head down, hurrying through the busy supermarket aisles, a woman didn’t even notice the tall, googly-eyed robot in front of her at a local Giant store until she crashed into it with her shopping cart. Laughter erupted from the shoppers around her, as everyone stopped for a minute to examine this large, gray machine as it rolled away.

Marty the robot recently made its debut in the Jennersville and Kennett Giant Food Stores, and also proudly wears its official employee name tag at all 172 Giant locations across the nation. 

Not only are its large eyes and smile unique, but the constant beeping sounds and glowing blue lights make Marty an easy target to spot, giving it a lot of attention lately around the store. Though most regulars of Giant have been exposed to Marty by this point, not many people actually know the purpose. Shopper Pam Pew is among these confused guests.

“I don’t even know. I think he cleans the floor? I don’t quite understand him,” Pew said.

It seems to be a common misconception that Marty cleans the floor, but its main job is to identify hazards, such as liquid, powder, and bulk food spills, according to Giant Food Stores. 

“I don’t think it’s purposeful. I mean, what is the purpose of it other than to go, ‘Hey there’s a spill over here’?” Pew said. “It’s probably more of an annoyance than anything else.”

When a hazard is detected, Marty immediately becomes stationary, reports the danger to employees, and its lights turn yellow to caution customers. Marty’s skills were put to the test when he wandered into the bakery section of the store, quickly detecting a threat. Customers did not know what the hazard was, but Marty did. It detected a quarter-sized water spill on the floor.

Immediately, the robot stopped rolling and began projecting the phrase, “Caution, hazard detected” in both English and Spanish. This was followed by the announcement, “Ceanup in the bakery department,” which was broadcast over the store's loudspeaker.

Giant representatives said that the robots give the store's staff the ability to focus more on their customers, as well as eliminate customer accidents that can arise from spills.

While some customers are confused by Marty's presence, others are intrigued by it, such as 4-year-old Kinley McCarthy. When the robot first approached her, the young girl clung to her mother, Jennifer, in fear. However, after realizing no harm could be done, she became fascinated and could not look away. Jennifer said that she had seen the robot before, but that it was her daughter’s first encounter with it. Kinley whispered to her mom that she thought it was a little scary, but also kind of fun.

“It’s cool that our grocery store has a robot,” McCarthy said. “The kids are really excited about it.”

When asked how Marty affects her daily shopping experience, Jessica Chastain, along with others, said that it really doesn’t. “He’s kind of just there, but I think it’s something neat to see, and I think it’s cool for the kids, even though they might not understand it,” Chastain said.

Shoppers have contrasting opinions when it comes to Marty. Some people are excited to see the technological progress implemented in grocery stores, but others are confused and fearful of these advancements. Lorraine Nelson thinks this machine is certainly not hurtful, and she and her husband, Jim, were quite entertained by Marty’s job. When asked if he has ever seen anything like Marty before, Jim said that it reminded him of the robot vacuum that cleans the carpet in his home.

Store policy prevents store employees from commenting on the robot, but Giant Food Stores president Nicholas Bertram said that associates have been working hard to bring this innovation to life.

“Bringing robotics and A.I. from a research lab to the sales floor has been a very exciting journey, and we were thrilled by the customer response in our pilot stores,” Bertram said.