H-E-B Tests Grocery Robots: Innovation or the Next Garmin Dash-Mounted GPS?

Omni Talk Retail · Jun 28, 2025 · 4m · transcript

In this week's Fast Five Podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, conservative grocery giant H-E-B surprises everyone by piloting autonomous delivery robots in Austin with Avride. We break down why this 1-mile radius test makes sense for this location but question whether robot delivery can scale beyond urban experiments.

Timestamps:

25:12 - H-E-B robot pilot details

26:21 - Why this location works

27:07 - Scaling challenges

27:45 - "Garminized" prediction

28:56 - Partnership speculation

Catch the full episode here…