Walmart Grocery Pickup Reaches 1,000th Location

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. brought its online grocery pickup location count up to 1,000 last week, with several launches in Seattle.

Over the course of the last year, Walmart has activated more than 400 online grocery pickup locations. On Sept. 7, the retailer unveiled the service at the 995th through 1000th locations in Seattle.

While the 1000th location was something to celebrate, it doesn’t mark the end of Walmart’s expansion of this service. The mega-retailer already plans to expand it to more regions.

“Customers from Atlanta to Albuquerque and Nashville to New York have told us what an ally online grocery pickup is in their fight to save something so important: time,” said Mike Turner, vice president of ecommerce operations for Walmart U.S. “Our daily mission is to help our customers keep a little more money in their pockets and add more time in their schedules.”

Walmart’s online grocery pickup program enables customers to shop the retailer's more than 40,000 grocery items on offer online, place their order and then pick it up at a local Walmart location. When shoppers place an order, they also pick a delivery time and can pick up their order in as little as four hours. Adding to the program’s appeal, customers can stay in their cars while Walmart employees load their orders.

Over the last few years, Walmart has launched a number of pilot programs in search of the best ways to add convenience to the shopping experience. These include click-and-collect programs, an automated grocery pickup kiosk, and more.

Bentonville-based Walmart has more than 11,539 stores under 63 banners in 28 countries, and ecommerce websites in 11 countries.

To read the full story, check out Convenience Store News' sister publication Progressive Grocer.