C-A-L Ranch gets friendly inventory robot

REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) — A local C-A-L Ranch store has welcomed a robotic friend to help make things more efficient for both customers and employees.

Tally is a tall robot that slowly goes up and down each aisle multiple times a day and scans all the bar codes. It makes sure everything is marked properly and in the right place and find out which products need to be restocked. 

"We can then turn this information over to our associates, and they can go fill the shelves," said Country Supplier CEO, Tom Yearsley.

Tally starts working around the store after adapting to the store's layout, which takes about a month. It's also programmed to stop and go around customers so they don't have to worry about getting run over.

Yearsley says Tally has already proven to be very successful.

"As we tested over the last 6 or 7 months, we decided to roll it out to all 55 of our locations. So we'll begin that rollout in January of next year."

Yearsley says it should take about a year to get a Tally at all 55 of those locations.

One of the most common questions asked about Tally is if it replaces human employees. Yearsley says that's not the case at all. It actually gives employees time to do other tasks by completing tedious inventory work for them.

"Tally's here to help support our associates, to make them more efficient and...to free them up so they can interact one on one with the customers. So Tally truly is just a supplement to make it a better experience for our associates and a better experience for our customers," Yearsley said.

More information about Tally can be found here.