The long game is probably a litany of other vision-based tasks including things like stock management. Not knowing what is even on their shelves is a huge issue for retail— having oversupply is wasteful and can result in spoilage, and undersupply means lost business and unhappy customers.
Note that there are other companies getting into this space:
In fact, that's exactly the purpose of the one in our local grocery chain's stores (Schnuck's in St. Louis). It scans the shelves for inventory.
It's not as big as the one shown in the article and I don't see it all day, every day, though I wonder if I've just gotten used to seeing it and now am blind to it.
Note that there are other companies getting into this space:
http://pal-robotics.com/en/products/stockbot/
https://shelfierobot.com/