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			Robot Stores

	The robot store is a retail store operated by one or more robots
rather than by human clerks, managers, and stockboys.  It's quicker to buy
things at a robot store, and you get better service.  You spend less time
waiting in line or going through the aisles searching for olives.  Since
robot stores have few or no human employees, people don't have to spend
their work lives doing boring things, like telling people that the olives
are on aisle 9 or counting boxes of cornflakes.

	Robot stores can be of different kinds.  Grocery stores, book
stores, clothing stores.  Even stores that sell robots.


			The Robot Grocery Store

	The robot grocery store can be open 24 hours a day, like some
convenience stores, or like a giant vending machine.  No human employees
have to be present for normal operation.  You key in a shopping list on
one of its terminals and the robot fetches the groceries for you.
Probably you pay with a credit card.  It would be nice to have the robot
load your groceries into the car, but that would be harder, so perhaps
that refinement will have to wait a while.

	The object would be to make these as easy and pleasant as
possible, whether the customer is doing a week's shopping or picking up
some milk.  Comfortable chairs would be provided at the terminals.  There
would be many select keys, so that you wouldn't have to type out the
names of the products you wanted.  It might be useful to be able to call
up your shopping list of the previous week to remind you what you wanted
to get, or to tell the robot to remind you about light bulbs the next time
you come in.  One can imagine large display screens to let you see products
when choosing among brands.  One might be given the option of seeing that
week's specials or not, or of seeing information on new products or not.
Finding the best way to do it would be a matter for study and competition.

	The robot store would be better than a vending machine in that
wouldn't need such constant restocking and could sell much larger items.
The  robot would do the restocking itself.  At the loading dock, the robot
would unload delivery trucks and put the goods away.

	Robberies would be difficult, because the robot would be rather
brave, meeting requests to hand over money or liquor with `syntax error',
or `that does not compute'.  It would automatically call the police or,
perhaps, the headquarters of its company, and would have a camera with
which to photograph would-be robbers or vandals.

	Since the store wouldn't have to accommodate anyone but the robot(s)
it could use space very efficiently and would hold more than a regular store
the same size.  Money would be saved because the individual stores would not
have employees.  The jobs eliminated are not the sort of jobs people long to
have.  After all, children don't dream of growing up to be clerks.  The
would have employees only at headquarters or to come by and do occasional
repair on the robot.

	What would the robot be like?  There would have to be a little
research to determine the most efficient form for a robot that unpacks
heavy boxes and locates small items.  It might prove most efficient for it
to be roughly human-shaped, with wheels.  It might be a good idea for it to
have an eye on the end of an arm, for looking into boxes.  Or perhaps a
shopping cart with arms would work best.  It wouldn't have to be very smart,
since what it would be doing is within our present state of vision and
control technology.

	Produce and meat would be a special problem.  It would be packaged
in containers which the robot could handle, with prices already computed, so
that the robot wouldn't have to select and weigh produce.  Even now, the
USDA is working on a program enabling sensors to distinguish unripe and ripe
fruit.  Alternately, produce, like meat, could be assigned a date after
which it coudn't be sold.  This might result in good produce and meat not
being sold, which would cut into the profits, but it would be worth it in
order to have a full range of foods available.

	How would the robot store interact with the automatic delivery
system I have described in another chapter?  They are competing ideas.
The automatic delivery system would certainly be more convenient and save
more time once it was set up, but robot stores would be much easier to adopt.
They don't require digging up streets or setting up any kind of system.  The
technology is relatively easier, and the costs of setting up a few stores
should be within the reach of many companies.

	The robot store I have been describing here is a grocery store,
but the idea could be used in many different kinds of merchandising.
Hardware stores, post offices, auto parts stores, and many others could
be operated this way.  This approach would be less easy for stores like
bookstores and clothing stores, where people want to take time examining
the stock before they buy.


			The Robot Book Store

	Consider a bookstore where books don't exist in printed form
unless a customer wants to buy one.  The bookstore would contain various
advertising displays, no doubt.  There would be terminals at which
customers could browse through books that were offered, to see if they
wanted to read them.  Also available through the terminals would be the
list of all the titles the bookstore could get, and a list of books in
print.

	If a customer decided to buy a particular book, it would be
printed for him, on whatever quality paper he wanted.  The customer
would also have a choice of cover bindings available, ideal for those
who don't like to be seen reading romances, pornography, or diet books.
The plain brown wrapper could be built in.

	The technology exists now to have such a bookstore.  Publishers
would have to print no more books than they could sell.  Bookstores would
save space by not having to store books that have to be sent back to
the publisher if they don't sell.  As a result, publishers would be able
to publish more different books, and bookstores would be able to carry
more titles.

	This idea is a competitor of the universal library idea (see xxx)
but would be easier to put in place, since it would be easier to make a
profit doing it.  Nor does it depend on the widespread availability of
home terminals.


			The Robot Tailor
	
	Harder, but still within our reach, is the clothing store that
makes clothes on demand, promptly and cheaply.  This is not a new idea.  It
has been mentioned often enough to show that it's something people would
really like.

	The basic idea is that of a tailor shop, except that the tailors are
computer controlled cutting and sewing machines capable of making just one
garment in a requested size.

	The simplest version of this store would contain pattern books,
fabric and notions (buttons, zippers, and so forth), and the machines.  A
customer would select a pattern and a fabric and order a garment made in
the correct size.  The garment would be assembled and the customer could
wear it away.

	In fancier versions the computer could be ordered not just to make
clothing in one of a given set of sizes, but could be told the customer's
measurements in order to produce individually tailored clothes.  Or the
customer could design a new pattern by specifying different features.  The
fact that no one else is wearing deerstalker hats or satin Mother Hubbards
this year need not limit one's wardrobe.

	One can imagine an even more advanced version in which the store
doesn't have to keep fabric around.  In this case the store would have only
small fabric samples and would either get requested fabric through an
automatic delivery system or weave and print it on the spot.  We don't
have the technology to do this now, but it certainly should be possible
eventually.

	Any one of the robot stores can have a human or two on the
premises, if desired.  At the tailors, in particular, one can imagine that
people might like to have an expert to consult, perhaps a fashion designer.
Fortunately, advising other people on how they should dress is a job some
people would enjoy very much.