Tally, Kroger’s new stock-counting robot, seen at the Mendenhall grocery store. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian)

If you’ve been startled by Kroger’s newest — and autonomous — employee, you’re not alone. 

The “employee” is Tally, an autonomous inventory robot created by San Francisco-based retail technology company Simbe Robotics to help big-box retailers with inventory.

Tally has blinking blue lights, emits sounds like R2-D2 from “Star Wars” and, at least at the Kroger on Mendenhall Road, wears a little blue party hat. 

According to a case study from Simbe, Tally uses shelf-intelligence technology to help keep items in stock, track sales and reduce pricing errors.

You might be wondering how a pole-like robot can help stock shelves. Well, they aren’t doing the stocking themselves — not yet, at least. 

Tally cruises up and down aisles, stopping to scan sections of shelves for inventory, pricing and availability with its scanners and sensors. It then sends the information back to its fellow, human employees.

Tally and I met this past week at Kroger on Mendenhall Road, and I’ll admit, I was a bit caught off guard and took several photos.

Tally at the Mendenhall Kroger is adorned with a blue party hat atop its pole-shaped body. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian)

But other customers — including my roommate — seemed unfazed as she beeped and booped around them, checking shelves.

In my roommate’s case, that’s because she met Tally a few weeks ago at the Kroger on Houston Levee Road.

Although Tally doesn’t interact with customers, it almost ran into my roommate and gave her a jump scare as it whipped around to the next aisle, where she was at the end looking at macaroni and cheese.

The Kroger Co. began testing Tally at various stores across the country in late 2024 and early 2025 and has since continued sending them out in 2026, including some here in the 901.

Kroger Delta Division did not respond to my inquiries about Tally, but the company also has another pole-like robot called Barney — named after the company’s founder, Bernard “Barney” Kroger — developed with Badger Technologies. 

It’s perhaps not surprising that the supermarket chain didn’t respond to my inquiries, because it hasn’t made any announcements about using the bots. 

However, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company did outline its artificial intelligence strategy in late September at GroceryShop 2026, a global retail conference held in Las Vegas. Kroger’s AI efforts include a shopping assistant in the app as well as other vaguely described uses.

Yet, in the news release, Yael Cosset, Kroger executive vice president and chief digital officer, said, “At our core, the human connection to a customer or fellow associate will never be replaced by AI. Instead, AI will give our associates more time and insight to create that connection.”

Several other supermarkets and other large retail stores such as HomeBase, Balls Food Stores and BJ’s Wholesale Club also use Simbe robots. 

Home Place Pastures products are now available in four Krogers in the Memphis and North Mississippi area. (Courtesy Marshall Bartlett/Home Place Pastures)

So the next time you are at your favorite large retail store, especially wholesalers for food, look around for Tally, Barney or another inventory-scanning bot.

This week in food news

Speaking of Kroger, Como, Mississippi-based farm Home Place Pastures has launched three products into four regional Kroger stores. CEO Marshall Bartlett said having their foot in the big-box door is a big deal for a small farm like Home Place, and it helps them pursue further opportunities.

Gussied Up, the Edge District’s newest bar, will open behind Hard Times Deli — hopefully by the end of October. Adorned with locally made, Pizza Hut-inspired chandeliers, Gussied Up will be a place of nostalgia, according to the owners and chefs Harrison Downing, Cole Jeanes and Schuyler O’Brien. 

In this week’s Food Files, I reported that No Comment in Midtown will close after Saturday, Oct. 17. No Comment started as a wine bar before relaunching in early summer as a restaurant serving Indian-Italian fusion dishes. Other news: Flying Biscuit Cafe could open in the former Belly Acres spot in the Regalia Shopping Center.

Curry N Jerk has a to-go special: A shredded oxtail and jerk chicken Jr. combo with rice and peas and a side of cabbage. (Erica Horton/Special to The Daily Memphian)

For this past week’s $15 deal, Erica Horton ordered Curry N Jerk's to-go special: a shredded oxtail and jerk chicken Jr. combo with rice and peas, plus a side of cabbage. She was flabbergasted when she realized all of that was available for $15 before taxes and fees. The deal can be hard to find on Curry N Jerk’s website, but if you use this link, you should be able to find it. 

Jennifer Chandler gave us the recipe for Mrs. Hippie Eats’ wild rice-stuffed acorn squash — a fall favorite of Heather Ries, the Hernando restaurant’s owner. Ries is a vegetarian, but for her family, who are not, she serves the stuffed squash as a side with their choice of protein. 

On a recent episode of “Sound Bites,” Holly Whitfield interviewed Chandler about how she selects the recipes each week for The Daily Memphian’s Saturday Recipe Exchange. 

Basil and Jade is the new Thai restaurant coming this spring to the former Alchemy Memphis space in Cooper-Young. The restaurant will serve traditional Thai food. Alchemy has been closed for about a year after serving the community for almost 15 years. 

Prior to launching at the Memphis Farmers Market, Argento Foods mostly did small catering orders, but the business recently secured its first food trailer. (Courtesy of Argento Foods)

Argento Foods, an empanada food business, now has its first food trailer between Playhouse on the Square and a gas station at the corner of Union Avenue and Cooper Street. Argento Foods began at the Memphis Farmers Market, but its story goes beyond that, starting with co-owner Jennifer Joya’s journey back to the kitchen after a “mid-life crisis.”

The local Babalu restaurants have a new, yet familiar owner. Spell Restaurant Group sold the two Memphis Babalu locations to longtime employee Jesse Robertson. Spell Restaurant Group still owns Brookhaven Pub and Grill and operates other Babalu locations in Florida.

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