Walmart testing 24-hour, drive-up kiosk for online order collection

[midian182]

Back in March, Amazon announced AmazonFresh Pickup, a grocery service that lets Prime members drive to a pickup location so their online orders can be loaded straight into their vehicle. Now, Wallmart is testing a similar concept in Oklahoma City that uses a huge, automated kiosk.

The feature, available at the Walmart Super Center at N Council and W Britton Roads, is similar to Amazon’s in several ways. Users place grocery orders either online or through a mobile app before driving to the pickup point for collection.

But unlike AmazonFresh Pickup, employees pack the items into bags ready for the customers to collect themselves. After arriving at the 24-hour kiosk, it’s simply a matter of typing a five-digit code into the machine, which will then retrieve the goods. The 20-foot-by-80-foot building contains refrigerators and freezers that keep the groceries fresh.

Using the service is free, but there is a $30 minimum order limit, so it’s not ideal if you’re only looking to purchase a small number of items. AmazonFresh Pickup requires a Prime membership, but there are no minimum order requirements.

Amazon is trying to compete with Wallmart in several areas of the grocery market. Jeff Bezos’s company is still experimenting with its cashier-less convenience store after the public launch was delayed due to technical issues.

Wallmart says it’s been testing grocery pickups since 2014 and offers the service in more than 600 stores across the US. A similar kiosk concept is already used in the UK by supermarket retailer ASDA, which is owned by Walmart.

Walmart is also testing another way for customers to retrieve their online orders: giant, vending machine-style pickup towers. They’re currently being used in Atlanta, Bentonville, Detroit, Houston, and Raleigh, and are designed to make collecting non-food orders quicker and easier.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69610-walmart-testing-24-hour-drive-up-kiosk-online.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Might make a little more sense than the previously announced service, but still, having to pay fee's to participate will be their undoing in all but the largest cities. People are simply not willing to pay a lot more for their groceries. The chain Publix has taken it just about the the limit and even they see occasional dives in participation because they overpriced ... even by accident. The one saving grace they do have is the fact that the big box stores like Krogers and Win Dixie have diluted their quality so badly that people will go ANY direction to get good food. Can goods and boxed goods speak for themselves, but the data shows that things like the Deli, Seafood market, Meat Market better be 1st rate or you rapidly loose your customer base.

 

[p51d007]

If they perfect this, I would pay a little extra for the service. Anytime I go to Walmart, I try to go EARLY in the morning on a weekend, so you can at least get a spot to park. NO WAY I go during a weekend after 10am, or during the week after 5pm.
If I could drive up, pick up my stuff & go, I'd GLADLY pay a small surcharge...it's called a CONVENIENCE.

 

[GreenNova343]

Biggest downfall of this, or any other system where the groceries are bagged up for you, is just that: someone else is picking out your groceries.

My wife, for example, would never use these types of services. When it comes to meats & fresh produce, she likes to look at them before actually buying them. For example, sometimes she'll buy meat where the "sell by" date is only a day or 2 out, because she knows she's just going to put in the freezer until we use it...but other times, she needs one with a farther-out date because she knows she's going to cook it that week but hasn't 100% decided on which day it's going to be. It's kind of the same with fruits: too-ripe fruits are OK only if they're going to be immediately used (I.e. making strawberries into a pie), but in general she prefers to buy produce that's either just ripened or almost there (especially bananas; since they ripen so fast at home, it's always better to buy them green). Not to mention that she has to like the way the meat & produce "looks". Sure, the meat may still be good... but if it's started going grey she'll pass on it. Same with fruit; too many "bad" spots (or worse, actual mold on an item), & she won't even touch it.

And then, of course, there's the actual amounts. For vegetables, she may buy certain items based on weight to go with her recipes, but a lot of her "recipes" don't use exact measurements, so she has to actually look at them to decide how many she wants to get. So she can't just say, "I want X pounds of tomatoes", or even "I want X tomatoes in a bag".

Maybe there are some people out there that will be fine with this service. But I see that more for those that are buying the prepacked/pre-made items, canned goods, or box mixes; people that regularly buy fresh produce & meat will probably end up skipping on this.

 

[commanderasus]

When are we going to see "People of Walmart Drive Thru" website?