Sam’s Club rolls out its super-smart floor scrubbers chainwide

Walmart-owned warehouse club Sam’s Club on Thursday said it had completed the chain-wide rollout of its floor-scrubbing, inventory-taking robots.

In late January, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Sam’s Club partnered with artificial intelligence-focused robotics company Brain Corp on the deployment of nearly 600 inventory scan towers.

“Our initial goal at Sam’s Club was to convert time historically spent on scrubbers to more member-focused activities,” Todd Garner, VP of in-club product management said in a statement. “Our autonomous scrubbers have exceeded this goal. In addition to increasing the consistency and frequency of floor cleaning, intelligent scrubbers have empowered associates with critical insights … These scrubbers help associates ensure products are out for sale, priced correctly and findable, ultimately making it easier to directly engage with our members.”

The autonomous floor scrubbers were outfitted with Brain Corp’s inventory scan towers that capture data as they roam the aisles. The robots can provide data on product localization, planogram compliance, product stock accuracy and pricing accuracy verification.

“Each function negates the need for time-consuming and potentially inaccurate manual processes that can impact product availability, member experience or create waste caused by inaccurate ordering,” the company said in a statement.

Schnuck Markets added Brain Corp’s inventory robots to many of its stores in 2020.

Sam’s Club has nearly 600 locations.

“Through the use of inventory scan, Sam’s Clubs across the country are able to access a trove of critical inventory data in real time, which they can use to better inform decision making, run their clubs more efficiently and provide a better in-club experience for their members,” Brain Corp CEO David Pinn said.