Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

Centralized Robotics vs. Micro‑Fulfillment

• Commenters highlight that Kroger’s main failure was putting massive robotic fulfillment centers (CFCs) far from cities, producing low order density and long drive times.
• Several note this contradicts the density-driven logic that made Ocado’s model workable in the UK, while the US is more spread out.
• Many argue the underlying issue is logistics and network design, not robotics per se: they “optimized the wrong part” of the system.
• There is support for a pivot to micro‑fulfillment and in‑store picking, closer to Amazon/Whole Foods’ approach and to Walmart’s “every store is a fulfillment center” model.

Economics of Online Grocery & Labor

• Multiple posts stress that grocery margins are razor thin and $10–$15 per order often doesn’t cover picking, packing, transportation, and driver time.
• Some claim delivery is partly paid for by giving online customers older or less desirable stock, reducing spoilage; others report UK services with explicit “fresh for X days” guarantees that avoid this.
• One practitioner in European online grocery says Ocado’s tech is “ridiculously expensive,” designed for very large FCs, while the sweet spot is much smaller facilities that can profitably handle 3–10k orders/day.

Customer Preferences and Adoption

• There is a strong split: some love avoiding stores and happily tip delivery shoppers; others insist on seeing and touching produce and meat, especially higher‑variance items like brisket.
• Several note that even in dense European cities, many people still prefer quick walk‑in shops; others counter that online grocery is heavily used for bulky or heavy items.
• Some argue that attachment to in‑person food shopping, browsing, and impulse buying makes grocery behavior unusually “sticky.”

Automation in Retail & Restaurants

• Broader automation examples come up: McDonald’s kiosks, AI drive‑thru ordering, and self‑checkout.
• Many dislike kiosks and self‑checkout UX but acknowledge they reliably upsell and cut front‑of‑house labor.
• A recurring theme is the “last 5% takes 95% of the time”: robots and AI handle structured tasks, but messy, variable food environments remain hard and expensive to automate.

Alternative Models, History, and Strategy

• Ideas floated include multi‑story stores with automated storage, “walls only” supermarkets where center‑store items are picked from the back, and hybrid human‑plus‑robot picking.
• Commenters connect these to historic models: catalog stores, clerk‑picked general stores, automats, and early failed “automated” groceries.
• Some see Kroger’s rollout as driven partly by incentives and tax breaks, and question the headline: did the company overbet on robotics, or just mis‑site and mis‑market an otherwise viable technology?