Robots can clean your floor and entertain you, now they can also help you shop. Uniqlo's Soho store will debut Wakamaru, the first robot to be used in a retail store int the U.S. to greet customers, during the second week of September in their SoHo store.
Fashion Week Daily reports that the bright yellow robot takes its name from a famous 12th century warrior and was designed by Toshiyuki Kita and developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The friendly robot will recognize people, let customers know of special promotions, make eye contact and even lead store staff in motivational morning exercises.
Last month, Newsweek had an interesting piece on
household robots, highlighting Wakamuru and Roomba. While the Roomba has been a huge seller, Wakamaru with its $15,000 price tag was not so successful. It was expected to be a popular household helper robot when it first rolled off the assembly line in 2005 but was not been a hot seller.The large robot was pulled off the market and units have been rented out for greeting gigs like the one at Uniqulo.
Earlier this week we met Russia's richest man, now there's a new man atop the heap in Japan as well. Tadashi Yanai, the owner of the clothing retailer Uniqlo actually added to his fortune last year, a full $1.4 billion in nine months. He is now worth $6.1 billion and became the fifth person in five years to own the title. Many of Japan's wealthy lost money last year as Japan battled with its own recession. The former top man was Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi who lost $3.3 billion and fell to third place. According to Forbes Asia Japan's 40 richest are now worth a combined $69.5 billion which is down from $89.9 billion in May 2008. Most of the top 40 lost money last year.
