H-E-B, based in San Antonio, has been expanding into North Texas, and the company is also expanding its eCommerce operation. H-E-B now has six locations that can process online orders with four attached to existing stores.
This summer, H-E-B plans to open a fulfillment center adjacent to its store near Preston and Spring Creek Pkwy.
"All signs were pointing toward customers gravitating toward more and more customers gravitating to curbside or home delivery," says Kedar Patel, group vice president of eCommerce fulfillment at HEB.
When an online order arrives, robots retrieve the items from a stocking area and deliver them to an employee who packs the order and ensures its accuracy. The robots work on a grid above the stocking area.
"The robots are able to navigate in many directions at the same time as they're shopping orders," says HEB's Joe Fairchild.
Fairchild says robots will take items from different areas that contain frozen food, refrigerated items and those kept at room temperature. They are then packed and set for people planning to pick up orders or have them delivered. He says workers will also check to make sure items are not damaged and produce is not bruised.
He says the expansion of eCommerce will generate 125 jobs at HEB.
"The vast majority of the job opportunities we've created are partners who are shopping the order no different than they would inside the store. The robots are taking all that walking that would be done inside the store out," Fairchild says.
Patel says the ecommerce fulfillment center in Plano will support several stores nearby and make the process more efficient. He says shifting online orders to a stocking area will also make stores easier for other shoppers.
"We can fill more orders at a faster pace than you would traditionally be able to do inside a store," he says. "Inside a store, you're trying to do it in a meaningful way where you're not trying to bump customers out of the way. You're not fighting for the same box of mac and cheese."
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