Humanoid Robots Take Warehouse Jobs at JCPenney and Brooks Brothers in 2026

Humanoid robots are stepping onto the warehouse floor at one of America's biggest apparel retailers, and the work they are taking on starts with sorting and packing. As Forbes reported, robotics company Figure has signed a commercial agreement with Catalyst Brands, the operator of JCPenney, Brooks Brothers, and Aeropostale, to deploy its Figure 03 humanoids inside the retailer's distribution network. The first robots go to work in Reno, Nevada, handling repetitive physical tasks so human associates can shift toward higher value work. At Metaintro, we track how automation reshapes hiring so job seekers can see where the next opportunities are forming.

What exactly are the robots doing at JCPenney's parent company?

The robots are not stocking shelves or greeting shoppers on the sales floor, at least not yet. According to the JCPenney corporate newsroom, Figure's humanoids will automate sorting and packing tasks inside the Joey Pouch sorting system, a computerized induction, sorting, and packing setup at the Reno, Nevada Distribution Logistics Center. These are the kinds of repetitive, physically demanding jobs that wear people down over a long shift, and they are exactly where humanoid hardware tends to land first. The work is structured, predictable, and high volume, which is the ideal profile for a machine still learning how to operate in a human-built space.

Catalyst Brands invested a reported $40 million to update the Reno facility in 2024, so the warehouse was already built for modern automation before the robots arrived. That matters, because humanoids do not thrive in chaotic or cramped environments, and a freshly modernized distribution center gives them clean lanes, consistent layouts, and the kind of repeatable flow they need to be useful. This pattern of warehouse-first deployment echoes what we covered in our look at the AI-run store and its workforce impact, where the back of the operation automates well before anything visible to shoppers changes. For now, the customer-facing experience at JCPenney and Brooks Brothers stores stays the same, while the transformation happens quietly upstream in the supply chain.

Why is Catalyst Brands betting on Figure 03 humanoids now?

Catalyst Brands runs roughly 1,800 retail stores, shop-in-shops, and eCommerce platforms across the United States and Canada, spanning JCPenney, Brooks Brothers, Aeropostale, Lucky Brand, and Nautica. Moving that much product through distribution centers is labor heavy, and warehouse staffing has been one of the hardest corners of retail to keep fully filled. The company says automating routine tasks lets it scale operations without leaning entirely on roles that see high turnover and seasonal crunches. Marc Rosen, CEO of Catalyst Brands, framed it plainly, saying that when the company automates routine tasks, associates can focus on higher value work.

The bet also reflects how far the hardware has come in a short time. Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock described the humanoids as a standardized labor solution that can be deployed across diverse industries quickly, which is the whole pitch behind general purpose robots. Instead of building a custom machine for one narrow task, a single humanoid form is meant to flex across many jobs, much like the versatile machines we examined in our piece on the Unitree transformer robot and the workforce. For a retail group juggling five brands and a sprawling logistics network, a flexible labor unit that can be reassigned across tasks is far more appealing than a fleet of single-purpose conveyors and arms. The economics shift the moment one robot can credibly do several jobs that used to need several different machines.

There is also a timing element worth naming, because automation tends to accelerate during stretches when companies are already rethinking their cost base. A multi-brand retail group modernizing a distribution hub is exactly the moment a humanoid deployment gets greenlit, since the capital is already flowing and the appetite for efficiency is high. That is why a single announcement at one Reno facility deserves attention well beyond Nevada. It is a template, and templates in retail logistics get copied across regions once they prove out.

How capable is Figure's technology in 2026?

The robots are the third generation, branded Figure 03, and they run on Helix, the company's AI system that learns from real operational data gathered on the job. That feedback loop matters, because each shift in a live warehouse becomes training data that sharpens the next deployment. The more these machines work, the faster they improve, and that compounding curve is what separates this moment from earlier rounds of robotics hype that never made it out of the demo video. A humanoid that gets measurably better every week is a very different proposition from one that performs a fixed routine and never adapts.

Production has scaled to match the ambition. By April, Figure's BotQ manufacturing facility had increased output to one robot per hour, up from roughly one per day, after producing more than 350 third-generation robots and over 9,000 actuators. That manufacturing capacity is the quiet story here, because robots only displace tasks at scale when a company can actually build them by the thousands rather than the dozens. A clever prototype changes nothing for the labor market, but a factory churning out a humanoid every hour starts to. We unpacked that scaling dynamic in our coverage of Sereact's improvising robots for factory and warehouse jobs, and the same logic applies here, where build volume, not just capability, determines how fast the technology reaches everyday workplaces.

It is also worth being honest about the open questions, because no humanoid deployment in 2026 is fully proven at retail scale. Reliability across long shifts, uptime in a busy facility, and the true cost per task once maintenance is counted are all still being measured in the field. Catalyst Brands is effectively running a high-profile pilot, and the results will shape how aggressively the rest of the apparel sector follows. If the Reno numbers look strong, expect the timeline for broader adoption to compress fast across the company's other facilities. If they disappoint, the rollout slows and human associates keep more of the work for longer.

Does this mean retail and warehouse jobs are disappearing?

Not all at once, and not the way the scariest headlines suggest. Catalyst Brands has framed the rollout around freeing associates for higher value functions rather than around layoffs, and the deployment begins at a single distribution center with room to scale later. The robots target the narrowest, most repetitive slice of warehouse work first, which is the standard playbook for automation across nearly every industry that has gone down this road. New technology rarely deletes a whole job in one move, but it does chip away at the most routine pieces until the role itself changes shape.

That said, the long arc is real, and pretending otherwise helps no one. Routine sorting and packing are among the most automatable tasks in a warehouse, so the roles built purely around those motions face the most pressure over the coming years. The more useful frame, which we laid out in the AI workforce skills mismatch story, is that this is less a job apocalypse and more a fast reshuffle, where the skills employers reward shift faster than the headcount actually drops. The same shift is playing out beyond warehouses too, as we explored in our broader piece on the robot revolution and the AI gig economy, and in our look at how robots are filling roles amid a labor shortage in UK recycling. Workers who read these signals early can move toward the roles that grow instead of clinging to the ones that quietly shrink.

The shape of warehouse work has been shifting for a decade, first through conveyor automation, then through robotic arms and autonomous floor units, and now through general purpose humanoids that can in theory step into several of those roles at once. What is different now is that companies can deploy a single flexible machine instead of stitching together many narrow ones, which speeds the pace and widens the range of tasks in play. For workers, that means the safe ground keeps moving, and the people who treat skill-building as continuous rather than one-and-done stay ahead of the curve.

What does this mean for your career if you work in retail or logistics?

Start by reading which tasks in your own job are repetitive and predictable, because those are the first to be handed to a machine. If your day is built around sorting, scanning, and packing in a fixed sequence, treat that as a signal to broaden your skill set now rather than waiting until the change arrives. The workers who stay valuable are the ones who own the parts of the job that need judgment, troubleshooting, and human interaction, the things Helix and its competitors still cannot replicate at any reliable level. A robot can move a pouch through a sorter, but it cannot yet calm a frustrated customer, untangle a shipping exception, or notice that something on the line looks wrong before it becomes a problem.

Practically, that means leaning into roles that supervise or maintain automation rather than compete with it head-on, since someone has to manage, repair, train, and quality-check these systems. Those jobs tend to pay more and grow as deployments expand, which makes them a smart target for anyone already inside a distribution center. It also means sharpening the durable skills that travel across jobs, the kind we mapped in our guide to the five skills that beat a job title in 2026. Retail is not vanishing either, as new store openings keep creating front-line demand, a trend we tracked in our look at Dollar Tree and Starbucks new-store hiring. The opportunities are moving, not evaporating, and the people who reposition early tend to land in the stronger half of that shift rather than the squeezed one.

The flip side of an early-stage rollout is that it is also the slowest and most forgiving for the workers around it. The first humanoids on a floor need human babysitting, exception handling, and constant correction, which actually creates a window of demand for people who understand both the old workflow and the new machines. That bridge role, the person who can keep a hybrid human-and-robot line running, is one of the most defensible spots to occupy right now. It will not last forever, but it buys time to build toward whatever comes next while staying employed and close to the action.

What makes this deal notable is not that automation is new to retail, but that the humanoid form factor finally matches the way warehouses were designed for people. A humanoid can use the same aisles, stations, and tools a human associate uses, so a retailer does not have to rebuild a facility around the machine, which lowers the barrier to adoption sharply. That is why a deal at a single distribution center is a reasonable preview of a much wider trend, and why the value of human workers gets relocated rather than erased. The associate who once spent a shift sorting pouches may soon oversee the robots doing it, flag the exceptions the machines cannot resolve, and keep throughput steady when something breaks, which rewards anyone who treats this announcement as a prompt to build new skills rather than a threat to ignore.

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People Also Asked

Q: Which retailers are using Figure humanoid robots in 2026?

A: Figure signed a commercial deal with Catalyst Brands, the parent of JCPenney, Brooks Brothers, Aeropostale, Lucky Brand, and Nautica. The Figure 03 robots start work at the company's Reno, Nevada distribution center.

Q: What tasks will the humanoid robots do at JCPenney's parent company?

A: The robots automate sorting and packing inside the Joey Pouch sorting system, a computerized induction, sorting, and packing setup. Catalyst Brands says the goal is to move human associates toward higher value work.

Q: Will humanoid robots replace retail workers?

A: Not immediately, since the rollout starts at one distribution center and targets repetitive warehouse tasks first. Routine sorting and packing roles face the most pressure over time, so building durable, hard-to-automate skills is the smart hedge.

Automation is rewriting which retail and warehouse jobs grow and which ones fade, and the workers who see it coming get to choose their next move. Future-proof your career with Metaintro, where our AI surfaces the openings that match where the market is actually heading, and create your free profile to get matched with roles that reward the skills machines cannot copy.