Hazy sunshine with some areas of high-altitude smoke from those western wildfires hanging around for one more day. Warmer and still comfortable. .

Somewhere in Florida, a robot "picked" a rotary tool kit in a warehouse.

That small transaction was a big deal for Locus Robotics, which said Thursday the tool kit was the billionth unit its autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) have taken off shelves.

The second pick after that -- that's 1,000,000,002 -- was a running jacket selected at an unidentified fitness and shoe warehouse in Pennsylvania, and it was made just milliseconds later.

With labor shortages and low unemployment, robots are seen by some as the solution to supply chain problems. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.7% in August, low but up slightly as more people entered the labor force.

"The need for cost-efficient robotics automation is a must-have as e-commerce volumes continue to increase and the labor shortages persist," Rick Faulk, chief executive officer of Locus Robotics, said in a statement Thursday announcing the billionth pick.

Locally, Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure sees automation as one more reason to beware of more warehouse construction in the Lehigh Valley. Millions of square feet of big buildings have gone up. More big boxes are coming.

"This is why we need to focus our attention on creating manufacturing jobs," McClure said in an email statement Thursday. "We have enough warehouses."

He has also noted the traffic problems from warehouses and pollution from trucks.

On the other hand, the warehouse and transportation industry provides about 1 in 10 local jobs, according to one study. And not every big-box building is a warehouse.

From the outside, manufacturing sites can be mistaken for warehouses. High-tech manufacturer Coherent Corp., which recently received a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense's research wing, operates out of a large building in Palmer Township.

Locus Robotics says on its website that its goal is not to take jobs from workers.

"We also understand the importance of having robots that work collaboratively with workers, not replace them," according to the company. "Robots that are able to work alongside the people instead of having to keep people out of the way."

Steve Glickman, chairman of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, has sat through many reviews of huge warehouses. The LVPC makes recommendations on plans, but in most cases final decisions are left to municipalities.

Glickman said modern warehouses may require skilled workers who can maintain and operate robots. That could mean new, better-paying jobs.

"It might not be a bad thing to employ fewer low-wage employees in favor of more tech employees," he said.

Labor is short right now, so companies have to bring in workers from farther away, adding traffic to roads that are already congested. That is not sustainable, Glickman said.

Still, the warehouse boom locally, driven by the location of the Lehigh Valley at the center of the East Coast "megalopolis," reflects a lost opportunity.

"The entire Valley could have been better positioned as a tech hub if that was proposed with as much effort as warehouses were promoted as the economic engine of the Lehigh Valley," Glickman said.

Like it or not, the warehouses and the robots are going to keep coming. Wilmington, Massachusetts-based company Locus Robotics has investors and customers for its "LocusBots" who operate in the area: DHL, Radial, GXO and ProLogis Inc. among them.

San Francisco-based Prologis operates millions of square feet of warehouse space in the Lehigh Valley and was chosen by Air Products & Chemicals Inc. to develop part of the former corporate campus in Upper Macungie Township. Prologis is a global warehouse titan and is one of the world's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs.)

According to Locus, its systems operate at more than 200 sites, some with as many as 500 LocusBots. The robots have traveled more than 17 million miles in warehouses, the equivalent of 35 round trips to the moon, Locus said in its statement.

That may be just the beginning of the robot revolution. Whether automation is good or bad, it is accelerating. Locus said it took 1,542 days -- a little more than four years -- to pick its first 100 million units. Pick One Billion came just 59 days after the 900 millionth pick.

"Reaching our one billionth pick milestone underscores the critical business value that Locus's proven technology brings to our customers around the world, every day," Locus CEO Faulk said in the statement.

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- The Cadillac Pub opens where Klingers used to be at 24 E. Main Street in Fleetwood

- II-VI Inc. (pronounced "two-six") will become Coherent Corp., taking on the name of a company it recently acquired.

- ABEC, a company that provides services and products to the pharmaceutical industry, with headquarters in Northampton County, will invest in a new disposable-container facility in North Carolina.

- A new Lehigh Valley Martial Arts center will hold a grand opening starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, with a ribbon-cutting shortly afterward.

- Bethlehem Township's planning commission has approved an Amazon parking lot with 248 spaces at Brodhead and Mowrer roads.

- The Bethlehem Zoning Hearing Board rejected variance requests that would have allowed multifamily homes to go up on the Southside properties at 508-512 Selfridge St.

- Northampton County Council voted 1-8 against a tax break for development of a proposed warehouse at the Dixie Cup building on South 25 Street in Wilson Borough.

- The former Valley Farm Market, now known as Gerrity's Valley Farm Market, will take on a new name as of Oct. 14: Gerrity's The Fresh Grocer.

- Hamsa Exoticz is already open at the Lehigh Valley Mall, but it will hold a grand opening at 5 p.m. Sept. 16 with the Whitehall Chamber of Commerce.

- A new Home Depot will open a 136,048-square-foot building on about 21 acres of vacant land just off Hamilton Boulevard in Lower Macungie Township.

- Rocco Ayvazov's Monocacy General Contracting received approval from the Bethlehem Planning Commission to put up a six-story building with 55 apartments and retail space on the first floor at 128 E. Third St.

- The old Allen Organ showroom building on Route 100 in Lower Macungie Township will come down and about 100 total apartment units will go up.

- Reading Hospitality's Catering by DoubleTree will handle food at events at Reading Country Club, after Exeter Township supervisors approved a new agreement.

- Natural healing is the goal at Reike Balance, which will open Sept. 9. on Reading Avenue in West Reading.

- The Pocono Chamber of Commerce held a grand opening at the Bartonsville branch of Farmhouse Cafe.

- The reopening date for the historic Frenchtown Inn building overlooking the Delaware River in New Jersey remains unclear. 

- River Paws, a pet-supply store, is across Race Street from the Frenchtown Pharmacy.

- The planned reopening date of Aug. 13 for Toby's Cup was pushed back after ownership said a dispute about the occupancy of a home on the hot dog stand's property delayed the reopening.

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