Robots May Soon Roam Long Island Stop & Shop Aisles

Stop & Shop is planning to expand the staff at some of its New York stores, all with the same employee: Marty.

Marty is a tall, googly-eyed robot that will be patrolling Stop & Shop stores in New York soon. The robots have already been deployed to stores in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia (which are branded "Giant"), and are also being deployed to other stores owned by parent company Ahold Delhaize USA.

The goal of the Marty robots, Ahold Delhaize said, is to patrol the aisles of the supermarkets and spot potential hazards — mainly food spills. It would then alert employees to come clean the spills.

Stop & Shop said that the majority Long Island stores will be getting the robots in July, but did not specify which ones. The goal of the robots is to keep the stores safer and allow employees to interact with customers more.