Walmart will test supermarket deliveries to customers’ homes

Walmart already delivers groceries to customers’ doors and, in some cities, places them directly inside the refrigerator. The company said on Tuesday that it will soon be testing another convenient approach: deliveries to a smart refrigerator on the customer’s front porch or near its door.

Starting in the spring, the big retailer said it would launch a pilot in its hometown, Bentonville, Arkansas. It will provide participating customers with an intelligent temperature controlled refrigerator called HomeValet. The refrigerator will be placed outside your home, allowing safe and contactless deliveries of the product all day.

“The outlook for this technology is intriguing, both for customers and Walmart’s last mile delivery efforts,” said Tom Ward, senior vice president of Walmart customer products in the U.S., in a post on the company’s website. “For customers, they don’t have to plan the day when food delivery will take place. For Walmart, this represents an opportunity to deliver items 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

He said the retailer still doesn’t have plans for 24-7 deliveries, however.

Walmart is the largest grocery store owner in the United States and has made free, unlimited food deliveries a central advantage of its new subscription-based service, Walmart +. The service, launched in September, costs $ 98 a year or $ 12.95 a month compared to Amazon Prime, which costs $ 119 a year or $ 12.99 a month. It includes other benefits, such as fuel discounts and access to a smartphone app that allows customers to skip the checkout line.

The retail giant launched its food delivery service in 2018. During the pandemic, Walmart and other retailers saw online shopping gain popularity as customers searched for convenient, contactless ways to stock up on their pantries and delivery refrigerators. at home to last mile services like Instacart for pickup on the sidewalk outside a retailer’s store.

Even before the global health crisis, Walmart experimented with new food delivery options. In 2019, she launched an association program called InHome delivering groceries to select cities that puts fresh fruits, meats and other groceries directly in customers’ refrigerators for $ 19.95 a month. Requires additional security measures, including a smart lock kit or smart garage door kit in customers’ homes and a background check and additional training for employees.

The service is still operating in selected cities: Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Vero Beach, Florida and West Palm Beach, Florida. During the pandemic, the company changed its approach to comply with local restrictions, said a company spokeswoman: It is delivering to the kitchen only in Pittsburgh. In other cities, it is the placement of items inside the doors of the homes or inside the garages.

With the new HomeValet pilot, groceries will be left in rectangular refrigerators developed by a start-up. They have three zones that can contain groceries at different temperatures, including frozen, refrigerated or kept at room temperature, such as in a pantry. To make a delivery, a Walmart employee can use a device to lock and unlock the smart cooler.