Something unusual is happening in Kroger grocery stores across America right now.
Shoppers walking down the cereal aisle or the frozen food section are suddenly encountering a tall, slim robot rolling quietly between the shelves. No human controlling it. No one pushing it. Just a machine — moving on its own — scanning every product on every shelf as it passes.
People started filming these robots and posting the videos online. One video went viral on X in June 2026 with the caption — "This is what they mean when they say AI will be taking jobs in America."
It got millions of views. And suddenly everyone wanted to know — what exactly is Kroger doing? When did this start? And where is it going?
Here is the full honest story.
Who Is Kroger?
Before anything else — for international readers who may not know the company.
Kroger is the largest supermarket chain in the United States. It operates more than 2,700 stores across the country under various brand names including Kroger, Fred Meyer, Harris Teeter, Ralph's, King Soopers, and QFC.
It is the second largest general retailer in America after Walmart. More than 11 million customers shop at Kroger every single day.
Kroger is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KR. As of October 2026, Kroger's stock trades at around $62-65 per share with a market capitalisation of approximately $26 billion.
This is not a small experiment from a startup. This is America's biggest grocery company making a very deliberate bet on robots.
What Are The Robots Called And Who Makes Them?
Kroger is using two types of robots right now.
Tally — Made by Simbe Robotics, a California-based robotics company founded in 2014.
Tally is a tall, slim robot that moves autonomously through store aisles. It is equipped with cameras and sensors that scan shelves as it moves. It records what products are on the shelf, what is running low, what is out of stock, and whether products are in the right location.
Tally autonomously patrols aisles up to 5 times per day with up to 12 or more hours of runtime.
Barney — Made by Badger Technologies, another robotics company focused on retail automation.
Barney does a similar job to Tally — scanning shelves and collecting inventory data. Kroger uses both robots depending on the store location and region.
Social media posts show that the Barney robots are equipped with a sign directing interested customers to the Badger Technologies website, stating: "Meet your new Kroger Team Member."
When Did Kroger Start Using Robots?
This did not happen overnight. The timeline goes back several years.
2018 — Kroger launched its first major automation strategy, partnering with British company Ocado to build large automated fulfillment centres for online grocery orders.
2022 — Kroger opened its first Ocado-powered automated fulfillment centre in Forest Park, Georgia. These giant automated warehouses use robot arms and conveyor systems to pack online grocery orders at speed.
Late 2025 — Kroger began testing Tally and Barney robots at 70 stores in metro Cincinnati and Indianapolis in what it described as a pilot programme.
June 2026 — Shoppers began spotting and filming Tally robots in Kroger stores, with videos going viral online and sparking widespread public debate about AI replacing retail workers.
September 2026 — Kroger began rolling out Tally robots in the Columbus, Ohio market and announced plans to have them in about 60 local Kroger stores by late autumn 2026.
October 2026 — Tally robots have been spotted in Fred Meyer stores in Seattle and across Washington state, including in Lynnwood, Puyallup, Port Orchard and University Place. Simbe has surpassed a milestone of 3,000 autonomous units under contract globally, anchored by a 500-robot footprint within Kroger's nationwide ecosystem.
So in simple words — what started as a quiet pilot in 70 stores at the end of 2025 has grown to hundreds of stores across multiple US cities by October 2026. And it is still expanding.
What Does Tally Actually Do — In Simple Words
This is the question most people want answered.
Tally is not a worker replacement in the traditional sense. It does not stock shelves. It does not help customers find products the way a human employee would. It does not operate the checkout.
What it does is one specific job — inventory scanning.
In a grocery store, knowing exactly what is on the shelves at any given moment is genuinely difficult. Products go out of stock. Items get placed in the wrong location. Labels face the wrong way. A product that is supposed to be in stock shows as available online — but is actually gone from the shelf.
This mismatch between the computer system and the actual shelf is one of the most expensive problems in retail. Customers cannot find what they want. Online orders get cancelled. Revenue is lost.
Tally solves this by scanning every shelf in the store multiple times per day and sending real-time data to the store's inventory system. When something is low or missing — the system alerts a human employee who goes and restocks it.
"This technology means our associates can more easily and quickly identify and address shelves where products are low or out of stock," said Mark Bruce, head of communications for Kroger's central Ohio division.
Is Tally Replacing Human Workers?
This is the question that made the videos go viral. And the honest answer is — Kroger has not said clearly either way.
What stands out most is what Kroger has not said. Kroger could settle the debate tomorrow with a straightforward public explanation of what Tally does, what data it collects, and whether any positions have been cut as a result of its deployment. Instead the company has stayed quiet while questions pile up.
What we do know is that Kroger recently announced it would cut roughly a third of its corporate workforce over the next three years as part of a restructuring to lean heavily into technology.
At the same time — Tally's stated purpose is to make human workers more efficient, not replace them. The robot scans. A human restocks. But critics point out that the scanning job itself — traditionally done by human employees walking the aisles — is exactly what Tally is doing instead.
The debate is real and unresolved. Kroger's silence on the specific question of job displacement is notable.
Which Countries Are Affected?
Right now — the United States only.
Kroger operates exclusively in America. It does not have stores in any other country.
However — the technology behind Tally is spreading globally. Simbe Robotics — the company that makes Tally — has deployed its robots in retailers across multiple countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and parts of Europe.
The grocery automation trend Kroger represents is not uniquely American. Similar robots are being tested and deployed by:
- Walmart — USA
- Tesco — United Kingdom
- Carrefour — France and Europe
- Woolworths — Australia
- Ocado — United Kingdom (fully automated warehouses)
- Amazon Fresh — USA and UK (cashierless checkout technology)
The grocery store robot wave is global. Kroger is just the most visible example right now because of the viral videos.
The Automated Warehouse Side — A Bigger Story
While the in-store Tally robots get the viral attention — Kroger's bigger and more expensive automation bet is its network of fully automated fulfilment centres built with British company Ocado.
These are enormous warehouses where robotic arms, conveyor systems, and AI software work together to pack online grocery orders with almost no human involvement.
Kroger's partnership with Ocado remains intact for automated centres operating in Ohio, Texas, Colorado, Michigan and Georgia. Kroger continues to install more automation capacity, lifting throughput in Detroit and preparing to deploy Ocado's AutoFreezer technology for the Phoenix facility.
But this part of the strategy has had problems.
Kroger will shut down a spoke facility in Nashville, Tennessee, early in 2026, laying off 132 workers. The company has already confirmed closures of automated centres in Wisconsin, Maryland and Florida starting in January, along with several spoke locations in Florida and Virginia.
So the picture is mixed. In-store robots are expanding fast. The large automated warehouse network is being scaled back in some places while growing in others.
What Is The Demand For Grocery Robots Globally?
The global grocery automation market is enormous and growing fast.
The global warehouse robotics market was valued at approximately $6.4 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach over $30 billion by 2030. That is nearly 5x growth in 7 years.
For in-store robots specifically — the market is newer but growing rapidly driven by:
- Rising labour costs in developed countries
- Post-pandemic staffing challenges in retail
- The explosion of online grocery that demands real-time inventory accuracy
- AI becoming good enough to make these robots actually reliable
Simbe — the company behind Tally — recently surpassed 3,000 units under contract globally. A year ago that number was much smaller. The growth rate is accelerating.
What Customers Actually Think
The reaction from Kroger shoppers has been genuinely mixed.
Kroger has deployed aisle-roaming robots named Tally in select stores nationwide to help shoppers locate items, and the reaction from customers ranges from genuine enthusiasm to open suspicion about surveillance and job losses.
Some customers love it — especially the ability to ask the robot whether a specific product is in stock and get an instant answer.
Others find it unsettling. The privacy question is real — a robot with cameras scanning every aisle multiple times per day is also potentially collecting data about shoppers' movements and behaviour. Kroger has not published a detailed explanation of what data Tally collects or how long it is stored.
There is also the broader unease — watching a robot do something that a human used to do, in a store where you have shopped for years, makes the abstract conversation about AI and jobs feel very concrete and very immediate.
What Happens Next — The Future Of Kroger Robots
Based on everything happening right now — here is where this is likely going.
Short term (2026-2027): Tally robots expand to hundreds more Kroger stores across the United States. The 500-robot Kroger footprint grows toward 1,000 or more units as the programme moves from pilot to standard practice.
Medium term (2027-2029): Robots evolve from pure scanning to more active roles. Kroger is reportedly in discussions with Blue Collar Robotics, a startup that leverages teleoperated robots to pick groceries and fulfil online grocery orders. The robots will also replenish shelves with products.
Shelf restocking — the job that comes after Tally's scanning — is the next obvious frontier. If a robot can identify what is missing and another robot can restock it, a very significant portion of the traditional grocery worker role becomes automated.
Long term (2029+): The combination of in-store robots, automated warehouses, and autonomous delivery creates a grocery supply chain that is dramatically less dependent on human labour at every stage — from warehouse to shelf to your door.
Kroger has already partnered with autonomous delivery company Nuro, which is deploying self-driving delivery vehicles. The fully automated grocery ecosystem — warehouse robots pack the order, shelf robots ensure inventory accuracy, autonomous vehicles deliver to your door — is the direction this is clearly heading.
The Simple Summary
Kroger started testing in-store robots called Tally and Barney in late 2025. By mid-2026 the videos went viral. By October 2026 they are rolling out in hundreds of stores across multiple US cities.
The robots scan shelves for inventory. They are made by Simbe Robotics and Badger Technologies. They currently operate only in the United States since Kroger is a US-only retailer.
The demand for grocery robots globally is enormous and growing. Similar deployments are happening at Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour, and many others worldwide.
Whether Tally is helping workers or replacing them — Kroger has not answered that question clearly. And that silence is a big part of why these videos keep going viral.
The automated grocery store is not a science fiction concept anymore. You can walk into one in Columbus, Ohio or Seattle, Washington today and watch a robot doing a job that a human used to do.
That is where we are in October 2026.
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