Walmart will test grocery deliveries at customers’ homes

Walmart already delivers groceries at customers’ doors and in some cities it puts them directly in their refrigerator. The company said Tuesday that it will soon test another convenient approach: delivery to a smart cooler on the customer’s lobby or near their doorstep.

Starting in the spring, the retailer said it would launch a pilot in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. It offers participating customers a temperature-controlled smart cooler called a HomeValet. The cooler will be placed outside their home, enabling safe and contact-free grocery deliveries 24 hours a day.

“The prospect of this technology is intriguing, both for customers and for Walmart’s delivery efforts,” said Walmart, US senior vice president of customer products, Tom Ward, in a report on the company’s website. “For customers, they do not have to plan their day for the delivery of groceries. For Walmart, it offers the opportunity to deliver items 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

However, he said the retailer does not yet have plans for 24-7 deliveries.

Walmart is the largest grocery store in the US and has made free, unlimited deliveries of groceries a central benefit of its new subscription service, Walmart +. The service, launched in September, costs $ 98 per year or $ 12.95 per month compared to Amazon Prime, which costs $ 119 per year or $ 12.99 per month. It includes other benefits, such as fuel discounts and access to a smartphone app that allows shoppers to skip the payline.

The retail giant launched its grocery delivery service in 2018. During the pandemic, Walmart and other retailers saw online grocery stores become increasingly popular as customers looked for convenient and contact-free ways to deliver their stock cabinets and refrigerators from home through last-minute services like Instacart to combat the pickup outside the store of a retailer.

Even before the global health crisis, Walmart was experimenting with new grocery delivery options. In 2019, it launched a membership program called InHome Grocery Delivery in select cities that puts fresh fruit, meat and other groceries directly into customers’ refrigerators for $ 19.95 per month. This requires additional security measures, including a smart door lock set or a smart garage door lock at the store and a background check and additional training for employees.

The service is still operated in certain cities: Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Vero Beach, Florida and West Palm Beach, Florida. A company spokesman changed his approach to local restrictions during the pandemic, and it only delivered in Pittsburgh. In the other cities, it places items just inside the door of houses or in the garages.

With the new HomeValet launch, groceries will be left in rectangular coolers developed by a new company. They have three zones that can contain groceries at different temperatures, including frozen, in the refrigerator or 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.