ShopRite pilots salad-making robot Sally

Sally allows retailers like ShopRite to offer a “salad bar” experience to customers without exposing them to the risks posed by self-serve food stations, which supermarkets had to close down in response to the pandemic. 

Customers receive a glove from a dispenser to wear as they tap the screen to order their salad. Later this year, Chowbotics plans to roll out an app that will allow shoppers to place their order on a mobile device and get a QR code which the machine can scan, which will make their transaction completely touch-free. 

“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, my family's ShopRite store was looking for a salad bar solution that was touchless, fresh, and innovative. The current health crisis made it even more of a priority," said Jonathan D’Orsi, vice president of operations at the ShopRite store in Carteret, said in the press release. 

Although grocers have largely shut down their salad bars because of the pandemic, they had already begun to see a decline in salad bar usage before the public health crisis started. According to Nielsen data, salad bar sales declined 6.5% last year compared to 2018. Sally could remove the need for workers to refill a whole salad bar daily and reduce waste.