A robot is now checking the shelves at a Surrey Tesco

There’s a new face on the shop floor at one of Surrey’s Tesco stores — and it isn’t a member of staff. Surrey Extra was sent footage this week of a tall, wheeled robot making its way calmly along the aisles, pausing at the chillers to scan the shelves as shoppers carried on around it.

The machine is a shelf-scanning robot: a self-driving unit that rolls slowly past the shelving and uses cameras and sensors to check what’s in stock, spot gaps where products have sold out, and flag items that are mispriced or missing labels. It feeds what it finds back to staff, who can then restock the shelves or correct prices.

Robots like this have been turning up in supermarkets around the country as chains look for ways to keep shelves full and pricing accurate. For shoppers across RH1, RH2 and RH3, it’s a slightly surreal sight — a glimpse of the high-tech direction the weekly shop seems to be heading in.

A helping hand for busy staff, or the shape of things to come? Either way, it’s turning heads in the aisles.

Inevitably, it raises the question plenty of people asked when we shared the clip: what does it mean for jobs? The companies that make these robots tend to pitch them as a way to free staff from repetitive stock-checks so they can spend more time helping customers, rather than as a straight replacement for people. Whether shoppers see it that way is another matter — reaction locally has been a mix of fascination and unease.

Have you spotted the robot on your last shop? We’d love to know which store it’s working in — tell us on Instagram (@surreyextranews) or send it our way through our submit a story page. For more local updates, visit our news page.