Meat, Ice Cream, and Two Robots Rolling Through Foley

Some demos start with a wide-open floor and no one around.

This was not one of those.

RevoRoute Robotics recently headed up to Grand Champion Meats in Foley, Minnesota, to meet with Kelly, the owner, and demo both the CleanBoss C40 and CleanPro C30. Right away, you could tell Kelly runs a great business. She was awesome to talk with, sharp, and you can tell they actually care about the products they sell and the experience people have when they walk in.

Also, I should probably get this out of the way early.

The food is fire.

The ice cream too.

And yes, there is a very good chance I bring that up again.

Before the demo, Mark and I had checked out Grand Champion Meats online. There were not a ton of pictures, so in my head I was expecting more of a butcher shop/eat spot kind of setup. Then part of my prep work kicked in, which is asking owners to send over layout pictures before we show up.

Once Kelly sent some photos, I realized this was more of a small grocery store and café setup.

That changed things a little.

A grocery store is a different kind of demo. You have customers walking around, employees working, people asking questions, tighter spaces, displays, aisles, carts, doors, traffic, food, and all the real-world stuff that makes robots either look really good… or get humbled fast.

So naturally, we brought both robots.

The CleanPro C30 and the CleanBoss C40.

We figured they would dominate again.

This was also Mark’s first demo in a more pressure-type situation, which made the whole thing even better. Customers were coming through, employees were watching, people were asking questions, and the store had that small-town energy where everyone notices when two robots start rolling around the place.

No pressure, Mark.

Kelly also has another location up in Crosslake, along with a meat packing facility, so this was not just some random little demo. If the robots made sense here, the conversation could get a lot bigger.

So I gave Mark the harder task.

The C40.

I figured, why not? Let’s see what he’s got.

I took the C30, and overall that side went pretty smooth besides the robot losing its position once or twice. I set up restriction zones and treated it more like a live demo instead of trying to map every inch like we were installing it permanently that second. There is a time and place for getting everything dialed in super tight, but during a busy store demo, that is also where you can start creating little issues you do not need.

The goal was simple: show what the robot can do, keep it clean, keep it safe, and learn the space.

The C40, on the other hand, decided it wanted to add a little drama.

It kept losing its position.

That is the part of demos people do not always see in the final videos. Sometimes the robot cruises right away and makes you look like you have everything figured out. Other times, it decides to humble you in front of customers, employees, and the guy you just handed the harder robot to.

For a little while, I was wondering what the heck was going on.

But honestly, it turned into a good learning experience for both Mark and me. We worked through it, turned it off, turned it back on, rescanned the area, and thankfully it was not some massive casino map we had to redo.

Once we got it back where it needed to be, the C40 started cruising.

And then it started killing it.

That is one of the biggest lessons with real demos. Robotics is not always about everything going perfect the first second you hit start. It is about knowing how to work through the hiccups, adjust the setup, understand the environment, and get the robot doing what it is supposed to do.

Once the robots settled in, the whole store started getting into it.

The people at Grand Champion were awesome. I will be honest, part of me wondered if a small-town grocery store might be a little unsure about robots rolling around the place. But it was the opposite.

Kids loved it. Adults were curious. Employees were asking questions. Customers were stopping to watch.

It turned into one of those demos where the robot is not just cleaning — it is starting conversations.

And those conversations matter.

A few guys with bigger barns and facilities came over and started talking with us too. That could turn into future demos, bigger opportunities, or maybe even an outright purchase. That is the fun part about bringing robots into real places. You never know who is going to walk in, see it, and start thinking about their own building.

After the daytime demo, we left the robots overnight.

That is where things got even better.

I checked the midnight run, and the robot dominated it.

There is something different about watching a robot run during the day versus knowing it handled a scheduled cleaning route when the store was quiet and everyone was gone. That is when the value starts to click. No crowd. No babysitting. No big production.

Just scheduled cleaning doing what it is supposed to do.

Kelly was especially excited about how the C40 mopped and left the floor clean without creating any slip concerns. That is huge in a grocery and café environment where people are walking in and out, employees are moving around, and the floor still needs to look good.

A robot that can help keep the floor clean without turning the place into a slip-and-slide?

That is a win.

Also, the food is amazing.

The ice cream is amazing.

I warned you it was coming back.

Tomorrow, we are heading back up to Foley to grab the C30 and let Kelly keep rocking the C40 for the weekend. We are also putting together cheat sheets for the workers, dialing in a couple more things, and giving two employees the full rundown on how to run it themselves.

That is the part RevoRoute cares about.

Not just dropping off a robot.

Not just doing a cool demo and leaving.

Actually helping the team understand it, feel comfortable with it, and see how it could fit into their real operation.

This was our first grocery store demo, and it was a good one. It had customers, employees, food, ice cream, questions, troubleshooting, scheduled cleaning, mopping, and a whole lot of small-town curiosity.

Grand Champion Meats gave the CleanBoss C40 and CleanPro C30 a completely new kind of test.

The robots had to handle the floor, the traffic, the questions, and the pressure.

After a few hiccups, a little learning, and one very solid midnight run, they showed up ready.

Foley, Minnesota, was a fun one.

And seriously — if you go to Grand Champion Meats, get the food.