Food giant Nestle said Wednesday that its Japan unit would hire 1,000 robots as sales clerks at stores across the country.
The first batch of the robots — a chatty humanoid called Pepper — will report to work by the end of this year at outlets that sell coffee capsules and home espresso machines.
“From December, they will start selling coffee machines for us at big retail stores,” said Nestle Japan spokeswoman Miki Kano.
“We are sure that our customers will enjoy shopping and being entertained by robots.”
I – Word Understanding
chatty – likes to talk
humanoid – having an appearance or character like human
II – Have Your Say
1. Why is Pepper a special robot?
* it can sing and dance
* it understands 4,500 Japanese words and still learning
* it can communicate with emotion
2. Pepper is created not just to work but also to keep people happy. Softbank expects to sell Pepper to businesses as well as consumers for personal use.
3. A hardware store in California has also starting employing a robot sales assistant to help customers find itmes they are looking for. Robots may become sales assistants in the future leaving many unemployed.
296 Nestle Japan hiring 1,000 robots to sell espresso machines
