VIP Class Notes (Tibo) [S]

Homework

Explain the following paragraph using your own words:

Dotcom Store, a new app for workers, will help the company keep shoppers from heading to Amazon when they can’t find something on Walmart’s shelves.
The new app, available in nearly all of Walmart’s stores, allows workers to order items online for customers if they’re out of stock. Customers can pay with cash, check, or credit and get the product shipped to their homes or for in-store pickup.
“Dotcom Store offers customers even more assortment options than what’s on our physical shelves,” Tom Ward, Walmart’s senior vice president of digital and central operations, said in a statement this week.
The app adds to two other programs Walmart has rolled out recently: detailed mobile store maps for customers to locate items on the shelves, and “Check Out with Me,” which allows workers to ring up customers on the spot while they’re shopping.
Walmart is trying to reduce customer pain points in stores, such as waiting in long lines or trouble finding an item, Chen said.
He warned, however, that retailers like Walmart should proceed with caution when launching new tech in stores. “You don’t want to mess up the experience for the 95% of people who aren’t interested in this yet and cause friction for the bulk of your revenue.”

Speaking exercise

I have an appointment with my ex colleague, I spend a nice 3 hours. take a lunch with her.
I eat meat with rice and chicken soup and we drink cup of coffee and stay and keep talking.
Walmart use robots to clean the floors of their warehouses which save human resource to that kind of job. 
They are also use a new app to facilitate customer’s when they can’t find goods in real stores.

It explains how the robots is be used in cleaning stores and navigate customers. It also explain how Walmart use robots in the past few years and currently situation. For example they use robots to unload boxes from deliver trucks, checking items on the shelfs and changing price labels on products and selecting items for online grocery. Someone in Walmart also explained they already used robots a few years ago
What kind of activities the robots can serve for Walmart stores and what are the advantages after using robots in Walmart stores. Also it refers to information about what will take for labor market after using many robots. In the future many retail companies might use robots and other companies might not can afford the money to buy robots.
———————

I had an appointment with my ex colleague, I spent a nice 3 hours. I had lunch with her.
I ate meat with rice and chicken soup and we drank a cup of coffee and stayed and kept talking.
Walmart plans to use robots to clean the floors of their warehouses and supermarkets  which will save human Resources for that kind of job / which will make this job less reliant on human labour / Walmart is trying to use machines to automate floor cleaning and cut related jobs.
They also plan to use a new app to solve goods shortage for customer’s when they can’t find goods in physical stores.

It explains how the robots are used / are to be used in cleaning stores and guide customers. It also explains how Walmart has been using robots in the past few years and currently/the current situation. For example they use robot for unloading boxes from deliver trucks, checking items on the shelfs and changing price labels on products and selecting items for online grocery. Someone in Walmart also explained they already used robots a few years ago
What kind of activities the robots can do for Walmart stores/ how robots can server Walmart better.  and what are the advantages of using robots in Walmart stores. Also it refers to information about what will happen to the labor market after using many robots/ how the labor market will change after using robots. In the future many retail companies might use robots but other companies might not be able to afford /  to buy robots.

Reading

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/07/business/walmart-robot-janitors-dotcom-store/index.html

Walmart turns to robots and apps in stores

New York (CNN Business)Walmart is turning to new tech to reduce costs and convince shoppers to keep taking trips to the store.

This week, Walmart (WMT) announced it would bring robotic floor scrubbers to 360 stores by the end of the year. It also touted a new app, Dotcom Store, that allows associates to order products for customers on Walmart.com when they’re out of stock on the shelves.
Both innovations tie into Walmart’s plan to build what CEO Doug McMillon has called “tech-empowered stores.”
More than 3,500 US supercenters are Walmart’s biggest advantage over Amazon (AMZN), but they’re expensive to run. Walmart has 704 million square-feet of space to mop up around the country, and the company believes the robot janitor will save time and free up workers to do other jobs around the store.
It is searching for ways to generate efficiency on the labor side and eliminate hassles for customers.

Robot janitors and grocery pickers

The 920-pound self-driving scrubbers, called the “Auto-C,” use automated technology to navigate custom routes around the store and mop up the floors. The machine relies on sensors to scan for people and aisles.
Walmart has tested out other robots and tech to automate tasks, such as unloading boxes from delivery trucks, checking items on the shelves, changing price labels on products, and selecting items for online grocery.
“One of our focus areas has been on bots,” CFO Brett Biggs told investors at an October gathering.
Walmart is running an experiment at 50 stores with “Auto-S,” a shelf-scanning robot that travels around aisles and identifies which items are low or out of stock, or where prices are wrong and labels missing. That information is important to help squeeze out sales.
It’s experimenting with a bot in around 500 stores that unloads boxes off delivery trucks and automatically scans and sorts the items by department. Walmart said the unloader saves time and helps reduce worker turnover in the labor-intensive back areas of the store.

Down the road, Walmart sees all three robots communicating with each other to get products to the shelves more quickly and ensure they’re fully stocked.

In Salem, New Hampshire, Walmart is piloting “Alphabot,” a mobile cart that gathers refrigerated and frozen items from storage to speed up grocery pickup orders. In Sherman, Texas, it’s testing an ATM-like machine that automatically dispenses fresh grocery pickup orders.
“There are all these activities — mopping, checking inventory, unpacking trucks — that are not sexy, but are required,” said Oliver Chen, who covers retail at Cowen. “If you can utilize technology to make that happen, you can free up labor to do other things.”
Although Walmart maintains that the bots serve as assistants to workers and allow them to engage more with customers on the sales floor, labor advocates worry that automating manual tasks will lead to job losses.
“There will be have and have-nots that can afford the robotization of retail,” Chen added.
Amazon bought Kiva systems to automate its warehouses, but Walmart has a more difficult task of trying to figure out how to deploy robots in stores.

Options for customers

Dotcom Store, a new app for workers, will help the company keep shoppers from heading to Amazon when they can’t find something on Walmart’s shelves.
The new app, available in nearly all of Walmart’s stores, allows workers to order items online for customers if they’re out of stock. Customers can pay with cash, check, or credit and get the product shipped to their homes or for in-store pickup.
“Dotcom Store offers customers even more assortment options than what’s on our physical shelves,” Tom Ward, Walmart’s senior vice president of digital and central operations, said in a statement this week.
The app adds to two other programs Walmart has rolled out recently: detailed mobile store maps for customers to locate items on the shelves, and “Check Out with Me,” which allows workers to ring up customers on the spot while they’re shopping.
Walmart is trying to reduce customer pain points in stores, such as waiting in long lines or trouble finding an item, Chen said.
He warned, however, that retailers like Walmart should proceed with caution when launching new tech in stores. “You don’t want to mess up the experience for the 95% of people who aren’t interested in this yet and cause friction for the bulk of your revenue.”

Vocabulary

the bulk / the majority
The bulk of our employees is made of college graduates.

in bulk / in large quantities
We only sell tissue in bulk, you cannot buy only 1.

friction / a resistance when one items is over another item / something which could lead to conflict
Air friction is the main issue when designing fuel efficient planes.

an advocate / someone who supports something
The advocates of building a wall are saying that it will make everyone safe.
Women rights advocates took the street to protest.

pain point : something that a customer finds difficult and may change his intension to buy
roll out / when you implement something
have and have-nots / rich a poor
The inequalities between the have and have-nots has increased over the last 10 years.

to advocate / to publicly support an idea
Nutritionists advocate avoiding fast food in order to lose weight.

Labor advocates / people who think we should continue to use human labor instead of robots

to afford / to have enough money to
A Ferrari is very expensive, only a few people can afford it

a route / a way to go from A to B
I wrote the address in google maps and I gave me 3 possible routes

to facilitate / to make something easier
WeChat Pay facilitates transactions between people

hassle / a pain
Getting a visa is a hassle, I wish I could go anywhere visa free.

down the road / in the future
we just opened a store in Beijing, down the road we hope to open in GZ and SZ too.

a bot / a process controlled by a machine

Pronunciation

lunch / launch

automated / automatic

route

ailes ( Iles )

afford

Grammar

lunch
to have lunch / to eat lunch
(do not say take)
I had lunch with my friend
I ate lunch at the new hot restaurant in town