In an era where retail is increasingly moving online, some shoppers still prefer to deal with actual human beings when they go to the store. But the folks at Best Buy believe that some in-store customer service tasks may be best done by automatons.
At one Best Buy in Manhattan, the retail has a robot employee named “Chloe” who handles requests for DVDs and CDs for those still living in 2004.
A reporter for NYC’s Fox 5 got a firsthand experience with Chloe during a Best Buy shopping trip to purchase a CD. It appears to just be a massive jukebox sort of operation, where you punch in your request on a screen and Chloe’s robotic arm fetches it from its glassed-off shelves.
In addition to disc-based media, Chloe can fetch other items that you might need — headphones, cellphone chargers — and two of the in-store robots at the Manhattan location is situated in the store’s vestibule so it can be accessed 24 hours a day.
This is Best Buy’s first attempt at automated in-store service. The idea is to give shoppers the immediacy of going to a bricks-and-mortar store and the joy of not having to deal with another human being.
“We’re looking to see how customers like it and how they use it before we make any decisions,” a Best Buy rep tells Fox.
I discovered this last Saturday, purely by chance. Although it claims to offer “pre-owned” items, presumably at a discount, all I saw were items at the regular in-store price. But I did try to make a purchase, but was unsuccessful, even after trying three of the kiosks. Still a few bugs in the system – and this was just after Christmas, two months AFTER the date of the Consumerist piece.
Make that “more than a few.” I went back to the Best Buy yesterday to try once more to make a purchase. This time I was successful, but only to a degree. My credit card was charged but instead of the robot delivering my item, I had to go downstairs to Customer Service to pick it up. CS employee goes back upstairs to the robot area and tries to log in for access. No success. Tries the other screen. Same thing. Asks another employee for help. Still no success. They give me my receipt and ask me to wait for a supervisor. I wait for a few minutes but lose patience (I’m on my lunch break and can’t afford to waste a lot of time) so I go back gown to CS and ask for a refund – which I do receive.