One Way Aisles

Will be seeing how this will be implemented at local grocery retail.

UPDATE: Walmart, Kroger, Hy-Vee, Giant go with one-way aisles to combat coronavirus
Meijer, BJ’s Wholesale Club also ramp up social distancing efforts
Russell Redman 1 | Apr 06, 2020  In SipermarketNews

EDITOR'S NOTE: Article updated with information from Giant Food.

Walmart, The Kroger Co., Hy-Vee and Giant Food are instituting one-way aisles and limits on customer count in stores as grocery retailers nationwide augment initiatives to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Related: Easter closing part of Southeastern Grocers’ expanded COVID-19 measures

This week, Walmart started one-way movement through aisles at an undisclosed number of stores, with shoppers being guided by floor markers and direction from associates.

“We expect this to help more customers avoid coming into close contact with others as they shop,” Dacona Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Walmart U.S., said in a blog post on the company’s latest social distancing measures.

Related: H-E-B sells meals from local restaurants amid COVID-19 pandemic

“We’ll continue to put signage inside our stores to remind customers of the need to maintain social distancing, especially in lines,” he said. “And once customers check out, they will be directed to exit through a different door than they entered, which should help lessen the instances of people closely passing each other.”

Over the weekend, Walmart began limiting the number of customers who can be in a store at once. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said stores will now allow no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a time, or about 20% of a store’s capacity.

The new policy will work as follows: Associates will mark a queue at a single-entry door — in most cases the grocery entrance — and direct arriving customers there, where they will be admitted one by one and counted. Store staff and signage will remind shoppers of the importance of social distancing while they’re waiting to enter, particularly before it opens in the morning. And once a store reaches its capacity, customers will be admitted inside on a one-out/one-in basis. ... "

Drones in the Aisles?

Certainly only after hours?  Even the order picking people in my local Kroger can create a traffic problem.

Drones in Aisle 5? Grocery Stores Becoming Unusual Hotbeds of Innovation  By The Washington Post 

Pensa says its drone probably will start appearing in stores later this year.  Data subscription service Pensa Systems has created a drone and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance grocery operations.

Texas-based data subscription service Pensa has created a drone and its underlying artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance grocery operations.

The drone can hover to scan grocery shelves and check inventory levels, and uploads this data to the cloud so grocers and brand manufacturers can leverage fine-grained information about customers' shopping habits.

Walmart is testing in New York its Intelligent Retail Lab, which incorporates AI-driven cameras, sensors, and processors to flag out-of-stock items to internal apps monitored by workers. ... "