11 ms·

Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

237 points by okket 7y ago

noonespecial 7y ago
They don't need next day delivery. They need a search that works, reviews that aren't fake, and a way to get products that aren't counterfeits half the time. Amazon has skated way out onto very thin ice and is ready for disruption.
- criddell 7y ago
  > and a way to get products that aren't counterfeits half the time How often do you actually get fakes? My family probably gets an Amazon delivery three or four times a week and we've never received a counterfeit item.
  - jihadjihad 7y ago
    For a few years I was in the same boat: dozens of items delivered without issue. Within the last year or so it's become more common to hear about counterfeit issues on HN as well as personally be confronted with them--I've had to return 4 items that were obvious fakes and a 5th item that was already opened and probably not legit.
    - criddell 7y ago
      Is there any area in particular that seems problematic?
      - joombaga 7y ago
        For me it's board games, and more specifically expansions. The last expansion I bought had slightly differently colored card backs than the base game, meaning you could tell if someone had expansion cards and making the expansion unusable. I had to compare them both to a friend's sets to know which was counterfeit.
        dragonwriter 7y ago
        Outside of the biggest major game manufacturers, that's long been a problem with legitimate board games having inconsistencies like that, for instance because different printers with slightly different process were used for different print runs of the same expansion. Its perhaps a sign of the times that counterfeits are perceived to be common enough that the natural assumption when this occurs is "counterfeit" not "QC/supply chain issues".
        joombaga 7y ago
        My natural assumption was "QC/supply chain issues", because I've seen those too. In this case the designer actually posted about the issue on a forum, which was later linked by the publisher.
        cthalupa 7y ago
        You might be getting counterfeit boardgames, but the slightly different colors on the cards isn't a great tell. Manufacturers are not great at getting card color to match, even for the same item, even in the same manufacturing run. I've got three kickstarters that have outstanding shipments to send out replacement cards because colors were mismatched on the backs in the very same box, and more that have already done it. I've only purchased Kingdom Death Monster expansions from the official store, and card colors are hit and miss. QC on color accuracy is pretty shitty in the popular factories used to produce boardgames, unfortunately.
  - ndiscussion 7y ago
    >we've never received a counterfeit item. How can you be sure? That's the trouble with buying from street vendors.. could there be something in this water bottle?
    - criddell 7y ago
      I can't be sure. I got a book and a CD from them yesterday and both look legit. One or both could be counterfeits and I'll never know.
  - kageneko 7y ago
    I've had a few fakes or knockoffs -- mostly low-cost electronics that I didn't care too much about. But one of them was an AC adapter for my laptop :| After I plugged it in, my laptop smoked. Well, more like sizzled. The manufacturer replaced the motherboard for me. After it happened, I examined the two AC adapters I had (real + not-real) and they were virtually identical except for some font and mark differences. That was enough for me to change my shopping habits wrt to expensive electronics and to start using review analysis sites for everything.
  - astura 7y ago
    How do you know you're never received a counterfeit item? Many counterfeits you probably can't tell are counterfeit unless you have the real item already and do a side-by-side comparison. For example, would you be able to tell if you got a counterfeit tumbler?: https://youtu.be/WvaTA0K_DZs https://youtu.be/WvaTA0K_DZs https://youtu.be/8B12EfGArME https://youtu.be/8B12EfGArME https://youtu.be/OfDZZPHByG8 https://youtu.be/OfDZZPHByG8 Counterfeits might not last as long as the real thing or, worse, they might but unsafe. I think I got counterfeit wallet a couple years ago, but I just suspected it of being not built to last, not counterfeit, until I read something on HN last week about Washington State making Amazon get rid of toxic school supplies. I was inspired to look up the wallet again and I found an extremely similar if not exactly the same wallet from a reputable brand but the one I bought was unbranded. I only knew the brand was reputable because I bought something from them before. I'm going to order a new wallet... straight from their site.
  - noonespecial 7y ago
    Try to buy an Apple, Logitech, or Samsung product. Also (not by personal experience) its become quite difficult to get name brand clothing and shoes.
hef19898 7y ago
That is maybe the first sign of brick and mortar retail finally waking up. Considering that technically they have one fulfillment center in every small town they should be able to achieve really short lead times out of these. Fulfillment Centers obviously being all their stores. While it is a non-trivial thing to connect all these stores to last mile courier services it is not necessarily overly complex. Just what that means for Amazon and retail will be seen. I for my part won't be surprised if Amazon will change its focus more to Walmart. In turn that could open opportunities for new competitors.
- m52go 7y ago
  > That is maybe the first sign of brick and mortar retail finally waking up. Hasn't Walmart been inching into this space for a while? I already cross-shop with Amazon all the time, and for me Walmart's delivery is often quicker than Amazon's already.
  - burger_moon 7y ago
    Ya I order from Walmart online all the time for dry food, for years now. Their delivery wasn't next day, but usually a few days which 99/100 times for me is more than fine.
  - hef19898 7y ago
    Walmart, yes. But at least in Europe (France and Germany at least), the last mile is still outsourced to the customer. Giving all the smaller delivery services in every city retailers always had the possibility to offer these services. That they didn't allowed Amazon to become as big and successful. Still, Amazon executed almost perfect on that opportunity. Since I always wondered how it would look like if that window closes I am happy that I might get a first glimpse.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    >Hasn't Walmart been inching into this space for a while? Yup. An aircraft carrier cannot turn on a dime but when it finally comes around it's bad news for anyone in its way.
  - 7y ago
sjg007 7y ago
Target needs to get on this too.
- martian 7y ago
  Target has been doing this for a while now, via their acquisition of Shipt. https://www.target.com/c/shipt/-/N-t4bob https://www.target.com/c/shipt/-/N-t4bob
- supertiger 7y ago
  Target seems to really promote store pick-up.
- eitally 7y ago
  Target started by adapting their supply chain to leverage underperforming brick & mortar stores as distribution centers, which is great. But they really need to up their e-commerce game. The website itself makes product discovery much harder than it should be, and their selection is still far inferior to Amazon & Walmart.
- untog 7y ago
  Dataset of one, but I've been more and more impressed with Target's online offerings lately. I've gotten a little sick of the fakes/third party nonsense on Amazon so I tried both Walmart and Target. As long as you're ordering over $35, Target does free two-day shipping, and they've been pretty seamless for me.
programmertote 7y ago
I recently ordered an iPad for my mother from Walmart (after comparing prices at Amazon, Costco and Apple store, and found Walmart's one to be $20 cheaper). The iPad arrived literally the next day. The iPad covers, although apparently shipped from abroad, arrived in less than 7 days. I was impressed. Next time around, I'll definitely be checking out Walmart before I purchase any other items above $100 for sure. Side note: I never had prime subscription.
octocode 7y ago
I'm excited for the future when we'll finally have day-before shipping, where ML predicts what I want before I even order it.
- marsrover 7y ago
  Hopefully it can also predict me backing out right before hitting buy. Otherwise life is going to get expensive.
  - sp332 7y ago
    Amazon has been getting people to sign up to have their homes, cars, garages etc. open to delivery people for stuff that they've ordered. I figure it's only a matter of time before they start warehousing stuff you haven't ordered there. Maybe you can just wander out to your car and browse, scan whatever looks good with your phone and take it. (Hopefully kidding but I guess you never know what people will trade for "convenience".)
    - bluGill 7y ago
      John Deere already does that for common parts. They put a shelf in the farmer's shed with oil, filters, belts... and the farmer takes out what is needed. Once a week the dealer comes by and refills whatever is missing, and once a month sends a bill. No need for any of the scanning as you take it out: you are the only one with access to the cabinet so if it is missing you bought it.
      - sib 7y ago
        So... it's like a hotel minibar for tractor parts. Great idea! (Hopefully the pricing is less outrageous.)
      - octocode 7y ago
        TIL, thats pretty cool and makes a lot of sense. I used to work at a mine and we'd break expensive parts all the time, the supplier would have to ship them in from halfway across the world. They should really do something like that.
p_roz 7y ago
The relentless competition in retail never ceases to amaze me. I remember when online order delivery times for basic items were measured in weeks. Now, I can order the most obscure of items and get it at my door in 1-2 days.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  >Now, I can order the most obscure of items and get it at my door in 1-2 days. For anything obscure but to big to fit in a bubble wrap envelope you're still going to pay big bucks though.
thebigspacefuck 7y ago
Amazon has rolled out same day delivery for my area and it is too convenient to pass up. I used to go to Brick and Mortar to get my items faster and I felt good that I was supporting them, but now I will have a hard time saying no. Walmart has always had a terrible website experience for me. It's difficult to find items that will be in store for pick up and difficult to tell which items are part of the third party marketplace. Going to Walmart in person is equally terrible. There are so many trashy people I just stopped going, even though the prices were lower. It's the worst of both worlds. I hope that same day delivery becomes something that every b&m retailer can provide regardless of their infrastructure. Maybe this is through Amazon or another third party. I'm wary of giving Amazon too much, but maybe this is the future and everyone else needs to get on board.
- hef19898 7y ago
  Coming up with a next day delivery service on scale for every brick and mortar retailer out there sounds like a good start-up idea. Kind of Uber for Walmart or some such thing!
  - alttab 7y ago
    Who says that once Amazon figures out one day delivery at scale that they won't sell it as a platform? Seems obvious. Uber says that they are the Amazon of Transportation. I'd argue that Amazon is the Amazon of transportation.
    - fma 7y ago
      Actually, Amazon just announced they are willing to throw money at you to start a company to do delivery for them. https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/13/amazon-offers-employees-10k-and-3-months-pay-to-start-their-own-delivery-businesses/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/13/amazon-offers-employees-10...
- thisismyaccoun7 7y ago
  Are you actually getting one day deliveries in a day? I always got two day deliveries on time before the switch, but so far the vast majority of my one day shipping items are coming late. It's not a big sample size, but 7/9 were or are currently late.
aeturnum 7y ago
I've been trying to use Walmart for most of my household internet shopping needs because I dislike a lot of Amazon's practices[1]. In general Walmart is...ok. Their shipping times are pretty accurate, though they will sometimes split up shipments and don't clearly inform you. It also seems like their shipping pipeline is a lot rougher on boxes than Amazon. I ordered a window-mounted AC unit and the box showed up wrecked - the unit was badly dented and never worked. Like Amazon, they have the problem of "seamlessly" integrating 3rd party sellers into their store which means you need to look closely or 4/5 things in your order will arrive day after tomorrow and 1/5 will arrive in 2-3 weeks. [1] Walmart is no picnic either, but only so many companies can ship me the random products I've gotten used to.
- koolba 7y ago
  I tried ordering a flat screen TV from Walmart. My logic was that it'd be a lot easier to return to a physical store then mail back. I'm not sure if it was the overall trip or the final delivery but I found the package with the "This side up" upside down. Opened the box and the screen was totally shattered. Their return process was nice though!
- jimmaswell 7y ago
  Wal Mart's practices have certainly been much worse than Amazon's in aggregate.
  - AlexB138 7y ago
    How so? As a consumer, I personally have a lot less trust in Amazon. At least with Walmart I know I'll get what I ordered instead of some cheap Chinese knockoff.
    - tdurden 7y ago
      Is that true though? I just cancelled an order with Walmart after I noticed it was a 3rd party seller; I have no idea if I would have received a knockoff or not.
    - 7y ago
AlexB138 7y ago
It's good to see some viable competition to Amazon, but it's regretful that it comes from, and probably can only come from, another mega-corporation with an extremely poor track record around worker treatment. I wonder how viable some sort of supply-chain co-op would be. Basically, get all of the medium players together to share resources to try to match these gargantuan companies on the delivery and returns front. It just doesn't seem possible for them to match these companies on their own, and a third-party would basically just be UPS.
- mabbo 7y ago
  In a sense some of the food delivery companies are doing exactly this. Perhaps if one of them branched out...
chadash 7y ago
Does anyone know if Walmart has consigned, third party merchandise like Amazon does (e.g. sold by X, but shipped prime)? And if so, does it get commingled with the Walmart supply chain inventory? My issue with Amazon is that I'm afraid of knockoffs, counterfeits and plain old cheap crap with fake reviews (really, 2000 people decided to review your plastic drinking cups?). These days, I'm shopping more and more at Target, who offers free two day delivery on orders above a certain threshold, good prices, a curated selection of items, good website experience and most importantly, no third party sellers intermingling their fake wares.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  At present Walmart does not commingle its inventory with 3rd party sellers. Things sold 3rd party are also shipped 3rd party so it is currently immune to the counterfeit problem that amazon is having.
  - beart 7y ago
    It may be worth noting that Walmart has a lot of products on the shelf designed specifically for them to be cheaper. So, not counterfeit, but the SKU might not be exactly the same as another store.
    - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      Yeah but your Walmart phone charger will likely charge a phone. Your amazon counterfeit won't even have pins in the usb cable.
  - cementlady 7y ago
    That's not entirely accurate. Walmart offers DSV (drop ship vendors) which is basically inventory as a service. Walmart pays the third party sellers for storing and shipping the item, but takes on the overhead of customer service and returns. The customer is never made aware of the fact that they bought it from a third party because even the shipping label is customized to match Walmart's labels.
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Walmart seems poised to steal a lot of cost conscious shoppers from Amazon because Amazon simply doesn't offer a lot of the "value priced" product lines that Walmart does and they've basically been competitive with Amazon for shipping times for quite awhile now.
AuthorizedCust 7y ago
They have this already for groceries in some markets. The problem is $13+ of delivery fees and tips. This has got to be worked down to $0.
igetspam 7y ago
I hope they can do a better job than Amazon but I'm not confident. I'm currently gaming their system of one day delivery failure credits because they can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact hat USPS won't deliver to my door and the packages are too large. USPS gets a box, it won't fit, they take it back to the post office and tell me I can pick it up the next day. I contact amazon, tell them it's late because the package is too large and they picked the wrong carrier and they give me a $5 credit. I tell USPS I'm not circumnavigating a lake to pick up the package and they can send it back. I border again and go through the same thing. I've told Amazon that they can't ship large items to me via USPS but they can't seem to figure out how to handle it. I even asked them to not use USPS (they're unreliable anyway) but they're stick in a loop. I'm openly and publicly doing this and they don't care. It's stupid. Thankfully it's a low priority item and I don't actually need it. Some day it will show up... maybe. Walmart, if you can figure out that problem, you'll have my money.
- seattle_spring 7y ago
  That effort does not at all sound worth a $5 Amazon gift card
  - igetspam 7y ago
    There's almost no effort. It takes less than five minutes each time, to both order and request a credit. I've wasted a lot more time than that on trying to get them to remove USPS as a shipping option. At this point, it's just a game for me.
    - codemac 7y ago
      A dollar a minute == $60/hr Or around 120k/yr @ 40hr/wk over 50 weeks, pre-tax.
      - axaxs 7y ago
        I'm not sure you'd report that as taxable income, so it would probably be closer to 'post-tax'.
leesec 7y ago
This is still only on orders over $35. Walmart still does not realize what Bezo's has done with Prime. He has made it the default option and incentivized users to check there first by removing all the friction. Having these weird caveats and no 'membership' (which again, makes users think of Prime first) is going to keep Walmart behind for a long while.
- objektif 7y ago
  Walmart did realize what AMZN did with prime membership. But they probably also realized their customer base wont pay for another membership.
  - lintroller 7y ago
    They already have a bulk retail subscription with Sams Club. A membership that includes access to both the retail store and one-day walmart.com shipping could be attractive.
    - dfrage 7y ago
      Possible evidence they could be thinking about this: a few minutes ago I filled out a survey of their's about my last Walmart.com purchase, and one of the questions asked was if I, or an immediate family member had a Sam's Club membership.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago
  Prime has weird caveats also, though. eg. small objects like personal grooming supplies, snacks, etc. are much more expensive if they're offered through Prime at all. (Most are offered through 'prime pantry' which forces you to buy at least 25$ worth of stuff).
wpietri 7y ago
What I wonder: why did it take them this long? Walmart has warehouse-sized stores that are close to almost everybody. And most of America's houses are already visited 6 days a week by a delivery person. Walmart could and should have made a deal with the USPS a decade ago. It would have been great for all concerned. Instead, they let Amazon practically own the concept, eating away at their huge distribution advantage.
- joering2 7y ago
  Deal with USPS? Would be hard to find a manager who can make this work and not obviously post it as a huge disaster on their resumee. USPS continues to bleed money, is always understaffed, continues to misplace the mail and is bugged with pretty old technology that is hard to upgrade. Add unions to it and you have a perfect government entity altho USPS is not actually a government organisation. If anything it would make more sense for Amazon mail to offer USPS a helping hand ;)
  - atwebb 7y ago
    I have had way less issues with USPS than UPS, especially considering the volume of mail coming via USPS. I think it is underpriced for the value it delivers, especially media mail.
    - neilv 7y ago
      I generally really like using the USPS, though not as much as when I could ship a Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box for $4.95. USPS is very effective for some purposes, and I have the impression that, overall, they take integrity of delivery seriously. I also like that the workers are getting pensions, and the ones I see seem committed to the work. USPS's reputation has also saved a few eBay sales, when the buyer said they didn't receive the item. I ask the buyer to please double-check that it didn't get mixed in with the junk mail or something, and say that, if it's not there, I'll refund them in full immediately and ask the USPS Postal Investigator to figure out what happened. Every double-check thus far has found the package.
  - 7y ago
KIFulgore 7y ago
WalMart.com lost me at limiting my password to 12 characters.
bradenb 7y ago
I actually ordered a CPU from Walmart.com a few days ago. It'll take a week to get to me, but it's still amazing to me that the order happened at all.
- dfrage 7y ago
  My goodness, they sell a bunch: https://www.walmart.com/search/?cat_id=0&facet=retailer%3AWalmart.com&query=intel+cpu#searchProductResult https://www.walmart.com/search/?cat_id=0&facet=retailer%3AWa... (substitute amd for intel in that query if you prefer) including a $1,629 Ryzen Threadripper $70 cheaper than Newegg, free 2 day delivery or local store pickup. The multi-thousand dollar Xeons seem to be more in the receive next week category, but a couple of the most expensive 18 or 28 core, $3K plus or minus, are 2 day, at or just a bit more expensive than what Newegg is charging for them.
rock_hard 7y ago
Too little too late!
Someone1234 7y ago
Target is also experimenting with this locally. When you order something online, instead of shipping it from a warehouse, it is instead shipped directly from a local Target store via UPS (you can tell from the shipping label). I've had several things delivered next day as a direct result. The major difference is that Target aren't yet advertising that this will be the case, and therefore don't guarantee it or similar. But I anticipate we'll see Target officially announce this service when they've worked out the kinks.
netcan 7y ago
Delivering physical goods is a surprisingly persistent problem. Circa 2003, my thinking was that by the time amazon inevitably folds and the next generation of ecommerce takes over, commodity delivery systems will have gotten good enough to enable a drop-shipping future. The sites would be aggregators (stumbleupon, digg, etc.) with a good UI and packages would come directly from wholesalers and manufacturers. Meanwhile, it's the 20s and delivery is still a strategic capability that the largest companies on earth compete on.
bob_theslob646 7y ago
It is for orders above 35 dollar and only available on certain items? How is this a shot back? Does Amazon have a money printing side business that allows them to subsidize/ keep prices near 0? Until then, this is the equivalent of pissing in the wind. If I was an investor, this looks like WMT opex just increased big time.
w8rbt 7y ago
I'm pulling for Walmart! I've seen the death of so many stores that I dearly miss (Sears, JC Penny, etc.). I can no longer get good hand tools or good t-shirts locally. And, the online stores are full of rip-offs and forgeries. Walmart is the last bastion of honest retail (where I can talk to a fellow human in person). I really hope they make it.
- naravara 7y ago
  >I'm pulling for Walmart! I've seen the death of so many stores that I dearly miss (Sears, JC Penny, etc.). I can no longer get good hand tools or good t-shirts locally. And, the online stores are full of rip-offs and forgeries. Walmart is the last bastion of honest retail (where I can talk to a fellow human in person). I really hope they make it. I kind of feel the same way, but damn if this isn't one of those things that me from 15 years ago would think was insane. People like Microsoft? Apple is being brought up on anti-trust issues? Walmart is "good" now? What even is this reality we live in?
- j-c-hewitt 7y ago
  Just so you know, Walmart is not the underdog. Walmart sells many multiples the volume that Amazon does, and to boot, most of the products sold are owned by Walmart. Amazon is merely a fee-taker on the majority of the product sales that it facilitates.
  - WhompingWindows 7y ago
    Can you post evidence to support those claims?
    - mediaman 7y ago
      These are not controversial claims. Walmart revenue is $514 billion. Amazon revenue is $232 billion. Currently, about half of the retail revenue of Amazon is marketplace sales, where Amazon does not own the merchandise but simply warehouses it on consignment and charges fulfillment fees, or in some cases simply places a drop-ship order for it.
vfulco2 7y ago
I tried to get a pair of airbuds delivered to upstate NY. Two weeks after they were lost in transit, WMT put the onus on me to speak with the shipper and track down. I canceled. Amazon has nothing to fear.
- whoisjuan 7y ago
  That Amazon announcement was a bait in disguise. Amazon can pull this off because they have massive logistics efficiencies that are optimized for their e-commerce business. Walmart has to do way more because their core business is still walk-in retail. They have to literally force their model to make this happen and that's why you get low reliability on the customer offering and an unprofitable dynamic in the business operation.
  - dfrage 7y ago
    There's some forcing for sure, but they already had a lot of the hard parts in place when they started the process. I've witnessed since the fall of 2016 their sending me many packages from various locations to almost always shipping one package, and without any promises many of those packages then and now arrive the next day if I order them in the morning.
UncleChis 7y ago
One thing I don't understand why Walmart hasn't invested in: change the web interface!!! Their website is just not attractive at all!!!
- degenerate 7y ago
  They're shooting to keep it as close to the in-store experience as possible, in that regard ;)
  - dfrage 7y ago
    You joke, but with the recent update they do have similar design aesthetics. If you're already a happy Walmart physical store customer that's perfectly OK, "familiar" is a good thing, even if it's not as attractive as you'd like. I personally wouldn't say the design aesthetic for either is "attractive", but they're pretty clean and functional, and that is worth a lot. Walmart.com transactions are now a bit easier than Amazon, before you factor in the tremendous amount of effort the latter requires to avoid counterfeits. Walmart.com search is a lot better once you get the right terms, and turn off 3rd parties which they make trivial.
- astura 7y ago
  What do you find wrong with the web interface? I think its fine?
- s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
  Neither is Amazon's
jefe_ 7y ago
Whenever Walmart is mentioned I like to use the rise of Dollar General to illustrate my complete lack of confidence in anything the company attempts. How on earth did Walmart see the rise of Dollar General and not think: hey we could do that, or hey we should buy them, or hey Amazon has slow rural deliveries let's innovate there. They simply gave it a half-effort attempt and then gave up the small town / discount markets (which contained many loyal existing customers), blinded by their efforts to become Amazon and attract customers who don't care about Walmart brand. Dollar General's stock has doubled over the past 5 years and has a market cap of $30 billion, I have difficulty believing anything Walmart can do in efforts to become Amazon will add value equivalent to acquiring or cloning Dollar General around 2009. The thing that really kills me is that when Dollar General started gaining momentum during recession in 2009, Walmart was still nearly three times as large as Amazon and could have used Dollar General strategies to put Amazon on the defensive in some markets, but for some reason they didn't and have been struggling to figure things out ever since. I don't even have a horse in the race, and probably dislike Walmart when I really think about it, but every time I see a Dollar General I start thinking about this and end up getting frustrated that a company could so fundamentally lose it's way, striving for something it will never have.
- FraaJad 7y ago
  I agree. I was in a dollar general recently in a different city (just killing time) and i think they are actually more appealing to shop than a walmart. (I shop in neither usually). DG gives an impression of small, local run (which I know they are not) shop with pretty decent service, and walmart doesn't feel like that.
- smogcutter 7y ago
  Dollar General is a vulture that swoops in to clean the corpse of towns that Walmart has killed. Your argument that walmart isn't racing to the bottom efficiently enough could be right on its own terms, but what's the point? It's like arguing over which ocean to dump plastic waste into.
  - pnutjam 7y ago
    Dollar General and Family Dollar are not Dollar stores. They are small retailers who sell a limited inventory of groceries and such. They are also closing alot of under-performing stores this year. I think Wal-mart might have known more then people give then credit for.
RickJWagner 7y ago
My family has started using Walmart's grocery pickup service. You select your groceries online, then schedule a pick-up time. You drive up at the agreed upon time, Walmart workers come out and load your car trunk with groceries. You never leave the car. Walmart's not sitting still.

237 points by okket 7y ago

They don't need next day delivery. They need a search that works, reviews that aren't fake, and a way to get products that aren't counterfeits half the time. Amazon has skated way out onto very thin ice and is ready for disruption.

criddell 7y ago
> and a way to get products that aren't counterfeits half the time How often do you actually get fakes? My family probably gets an Amazon delivery three or four times a week and we've never received a counterfeit item.
- jihadjihad 7y ago
  For a few years I was in the same boat: dozens of items delivered without issue. Within the last year or so it's become more common to hear about counterfeit issues on HN as well as personally be confronted with them--I've had to return 4 items that were obvious fakes and a 5th item that was already opened and probably not legit.
  - criddell 7y ago
    Is there any area in particular that seems problematic?
    - joombaga 7y ago
      For me it's board games, and more specifically expansions. The last expansion I bought had slightly differently colored card backs than the base game, meaning you could tell if someone had expansion cards and making the expansion unusable. I had to compare them both to a friend's sets to know which was counterfeit.
      - dragonwriter 7y ago
        Outside of the biggest major game manufacturers, that's long been a problem with legitimate board games having inconsistencies like that, for instance because different printers with slightly different process were used for different print runs of the same expansion. Its perhaps a sign of the times that counterfeits are perceived to be common enough that the natural assumption when this occurs is "counterfeit" not "QC/supply chain issues".
        joombaga 7y ago
        My natural assumption was "QC/supply chain issues", because I've seen those too. In this case the designer actually posted about the issue on a forum, which was later linked by the publisher.
      - cthalupa 7y ago
        You might be getting counterfeit boardgames, but the slightly different colors on the cards isn't a great tell. Manufacturers are not great at getting card color to match, even for the same item, even in the same manufacturing run. I've got three kickstarters that have outstanding shipments to send out replacement cards because colors were mismatched on the backs in the very same box, and more that have already done it. I've only purchased Kingdom Death Monster expansions from the official store, and card colors are hit and miss. QC on color accuracy is pretty shitty in the popular factories used to produce boardgames, unfortunately.
- ndiscussion 7y ago
  >we've never received a counterfeit item. How can you be sure? That's the trouble with buying from street vendors.. could there be something in this water bottle?
  - criddell 7y ago
    I can't be sure. I got a book and a CD from them yesterday and both look legit. One or both could be counterfeits and I'll never know.
- kageneko 7y ago
  I've had a few fakes or knockoffs -- mostly low-cost electronics that I didn't care too much about. But one of them was an AC adapter for my laptop :| After I plugged it in, my laptop smoked. Well, more like sizzled. The manufacturer replaced the motherboard for me. After it happened, I examined the two AC adapters I had (real + not-real) and they were virtually identical except for some font and mark differences. That was enough for me to change my shopping habits wrt to expensive electronics and to start using review analysis sites for everything.
- astura 7y ago
  How do you know you're never received a counterfeit item? Many counterfeits you probably can't tell are counterfeit unless you have the real item already and do a side-by-side comparison. For example, would you be able to tell if you got a counterfeit tumbler?: https://youtu.be/WvaTA0K_DZs https://youtu.be/WvaTA0K_DZs https://youtu.be/8B12EfGArME https://youtu.be/8B12EfGArME https://youtu.be/OfDZZPHByG8 https://youtu.be/OfDZZPHByG8 Counterfeits might not last as long as the real thing or, worse, they might but unsafe. I think I got counterfeit wallet a couple years ago, but I just suspected it of being not built to last, not counterfeit, until I read something on HN last week about Washington State making Amazon get rid of toxic school supplies. I was inspired to look up the wallet again and I found an extremely similar if not exactly the same wallet from a reputable brand but the one I bought was unbranded. I only knew the brand was reputable because I bought something from them before. I'm going to order a new wallet... straight from their site.
- noonespecial 7y ago
  Try to buy an Apple, Logitech, or Samsung product. Also (not by personal experience) its become quite difficult to get name brand clothing and shoes.

hef19898 7y ago

That is maybe the first sign of brick and mortar retail finally waking up. Considering that technically they have one fulfillment center in every small town they should be able to achieve really short lead times out of these. Fulfillment Centers obviously being all their stores. While it is a non-trivial thing to connect all these stores to last mile courier services it is not necessarily overly complex. Just what that means for Amazon and retail will be seen. I for my part won't be surprised if Amazon will change its focus more to Walmart. In turn that could open opportunities for new competitors.

m52go 7y ago
> That is maybe the first sign of brick and mortar retail finally waking up. Hasn't Walmart been inching into this space for a while? I already cross-shop with Amazon all the time, and for me Walmart's delivery is often quicker than Amazon's already.
- burger_moon 7y ago
  Ya I order from Walmart online all the time for dry food, for years now. Their delivery wasn't next day, but usually a few days which 99/100 times for me is more than fine.
- hef19898 7y ago
  Walmart, yes. But at least in Europe (France and Germany at least), the last mile is still outsourced to the customer. Giving all the smaller delivery services in every city retailers always had the possibility to offer these services. That they didn't allowed Amazon to become as big and successful. Still, Amazon executed almost perfect on that opportunity. Since I always wondered how it would look like if that window closes I am happy that I might get a first glimpse.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  >Hasn't Walmart been inching into this space for a while? Yup. An aircraft carrier cannot turn on a dime but when it finally comes around it's bad news for anyone in its way.
- 7y ago

sjg007 7y ago

Target needs to get on this too.

martian 7y ago
Target has been doing this for a while now, via their acquisition of Shipt. https://www.target.com/c/shipt/-/N-t4bob https://www.target.com/c/shipt/-/N-t4bob
supertiger 7y ago
Target seems to really promote store pick-up.
eitally 7y ago
Target started by adapting their supply chain to leverage underperforming brick & mortar stores as distribution centers, which is great. But they really need to up their e-commerce game. The website itself makes product discovery much harder than it should be, and their selection is still far inferior to Amazon & Walmart.
untog 7y ago
Dataset of one, but I've been more and more impressed with Target's online offerings lately. I've gotten a little sick of the fakes/third party nonsense on Amazon so I tried both Walmart and Target. As long as you're ordering over $35, Target does free two-day shipping, and they've been pretty seamless for me.

programmertote 7y ago

I recently ordered an iPad for my mother from Walmart (after comparing prices at Amazon, Costco and Apple store, and found Walmart's one to be $20 cheaper). The iPad arrived literally the next day. The iPad covers, although apparently shipped from abroad, arrived in less than 7 days. I was impressed. Next time around, I'll definitely be checking out Walmart before I purchase any other items above $100 for sure. Side note: I never had prime subscription.

octocode 7y ago

I'm excited for the future when we'll finally have day-before shipping, where ML predicts what I want before I even order it.

marsrover 7y ago
Hopefully it can also predict me backing out right before hitting buy. Otherwise life is going to get expensive.
- sp332 7y ago
  Amazon has been getting people to sign up to have their homes, cars, garages etc. open to delivery people for stuff that they've ordered. I figure it's only a matter of time before they start warehousing stuff you haven't ordered there. Maybe you can just wander out to your car and browse, scan whatever looks good with your phone and take it. (Hopefully kidding but I guess you never know what people will trade for "convenience".)
  - bluGill 7y ago
    John Deere already does that for common parts. They put a shelf in the farmer's shed with oil, filters, belts... and the farmer takes out what is needed. Once a week the dealer comes by and refills whatever is missing, and once a month sends a bill. No need for any of the scanning as you take it out: you are the only one with access to the cabinet so if it is missing you bought it.
    - sib 7y ago
      So... it's like a hotel minibar for tractor parts. Great idea! (Hopefully the pricing is less outrageous.)
    - octocode 7y ago
      TIL, thats pretty cool and makes a lot of sense. I used to work at a mine and we'd break expensive parts all the time, the supplier would have to ship them in from halfway across the world. They should really do something like that.

p_roz 7y ago

The relentless competition in retail never ceases to amaze me. I remember when online order delivery times for basic items were measured in weeks. Now, I can order the most obscure of items and get it at my door in 1-2 days.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago
>Now, I can order the most obscure of items and get it at my door in 1-2 days. For anything obscure but to big to fit in a bubble wrap envelope you're still going to pay big bucks though.

thebigspacefuck 7y ago

Amazon has rolled out same day delivery for my area and it is too convenient to pass up. I used to go to Brick and Mortar to get my items faster and I felt good that I was supporting them, but now I will have a hard time saying no. Walmart has always had a terrible website experience for me. It's difficult to find items that will be in store for pick up and difficult to tell which items are part of the third party marketplace. Going to Walmart in person is equally terrible. There are so many trashy people I just stopped going, even though the prices were lower. It's the worst of both worlds. I hope that same day delivery becomes something that every b&m retailer can provide regardless of their infrastructure. Maybe this is through Amazon or another third party. I'm wary of giving Amazon too much, but maybe this is the future and everyone else needs to get on board.

hef19898 7y ago
Coming up with a next day delivery service on scale for every brick and mortar retailer out there sounds like a good start-up idea. Kind of Uber for Walmart or some such thing!
- alttab 7y ago
  Who says that once Amazon figures out one day delivery at scale that they won't sell it as a platform? Seems obvious. Uber says that they are the Amazon of Transportation. I'd argue that Amazon is the Amazon of transportation.
  - fma 7y ago
    Actually, Amazon just announced they are willing to throw money at you to start a company to do delivery for them. https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/13/amazon-offers-employees-10k-and-3-months-pay-to-start-their-own-delivery-businesses/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/13/amazon-offers-employees-10...
thisismyaccoun7 7y ago
Are you actually getting one day deliveries in a day? I always got two day deliveries on time before the switch, but so far the vast majority of my one day shipping items are coming late. It's not a big sample size, but 7/9 were or are currently late.

aeturnum 7y ago

I've been trying to use Walmart for most of my household internet shopping needs because I dislike a lot of Amazon's practices[1]. In general Walmart is...ok. Their shipping times are pretty accurate, though they will sometimes split up shipments and don't clearly inform you. It also seems like their shipping pipeline is a lot rougher on boxes than Amazon. I ordered a window-mounted AC unit and the box showed up wrecked - the unit was badly dented and never worked. Like Amazon, they have the problem of "seamlessly" integrating 3rd party sellers into their store which means you need to look closely or 4/5 things in your order will arrive day after tomorrow and 1/5 will arrive in 2-3 weeks. [1] Walmart is no picnic either, but only so many companies can ship me the random products I've gotten used to.

koolba 7y ago
I tried ordering a flat screen TV from Walmart. My logic was that it'd be a lot easier to return to a physical store then mail back. I'm not sure if it was the overall trip or the final delivery but I found the package with the "This side up" upside down. Opened the box and the screen was totally shattered. Their return process was nice though!
jimmaswell 7y ago
Wal Mart's practices have certainly been much worse than Amazon's in aggregate.
- AlexB138 7y ago
  How so? As a consumer, I personally have a lot less trust in Amazon. At least with Walmart I know I'll get what I ordered instead of some cheap Chinese knockoff.
  - tdurden 7y ago
    Is that true though? I just cancelled an order with Walmart after I noticed it was a 3rd party seller; I have no idea if I would have received a knockoff or not.
  - 7y ago

AlexB138 7y ago

It's good to see some viable competition to Amazon, but it's regretful that it comes from, and probably can only come from, another mega-corporation with an extremely poor track record around worker treatment. I wonder how viable some sort of supply-chain co-op would be. Basically, get all of the medium players together to share resources to try to match these gargantuan companies on the delivery and returns front. It just doesn't seem possible for them to match these companies on their own, and a third-party would basically just be UPS.

mabbo 7y ago
In a sense some of the food delivery companies are doing exactly this. Perhaps if one of them branched out...

chadash 7y ago

Does anyone know if Walmart has consigned, third party merchandise like Amazon does (e.g. sold by X, but shipped prime)? And if so, does it get commingled with the Walmart supply chain inventory? My issue with Amazon is that I'm afraid of knockoffs, counterfeits and plain old cheap crap with fake reviews (really, 2000 people decided to review your plastic drinking cups?). These days, I'm shopping more and more at Target, who offers free two day delivery on orders above a certain threshold, good prices, a curated selection of items, good website experience and most importantly, no third party sellers intermingling their fake wares.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago
At present Walmart does not commingle its inventory with 3rd party sellers. Things sold 3rd party are also shipped 3rd party so it is currently immune to the counterfeit problem that amazon is having.
- beart 7y ago
  It may be worth noting that Walmart has a lot of products on the shelf designed specifically for them to be cheaper. So, not counterfeit, but the SKU might not be exactly the same as another store.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Yeah but your Walmart phone charger will likely charge a phone. Your amazon counterfeit won't even have pins in the usb cable.
- cementlady 7y ago
  That's not entirely accurate. Walmart offers DSV (drop ship vendors) which is basically inventory as a service. Walmart pays the third party sellers for storing and shipping the item, but takes on the overhead of customer service and returns. The customer is never made aware of the fact that they bought it from a third party because even the shipping label is customized to match Walmart's labels.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

Walmart seems poised to steal a lot of cost conscious shoppers from Amazon because Amazon simply doesn't offer a lot of the "value priced" product lines that Walmart does and they've basically been competitive with Amazon for shipping times for quite awhile now.

AuthorizedCust 7y ago

They have this already for groceries in some markets. The problem is $13+ of delivery fees and tips. This has got to be worked down to $0.

igetspam 7y ago

I hope they can do a better job than Amazon but I'm not confident. I'm currently gaming their system of one day delivery failure credits because they can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact hat USPS won't deliver to my door and the packages are too large. USPS gets a box, it won't fit, they take it back to the post office and tell me I can pick it up the next day. I contact amazon, tell them it's late because the package is too large and they picked the wrong carrier and they give me a $5 credit. I tell USPS I'm not circumnavigating a lake to pick up the package and they can send it back. I border again and go through the same thing. I've told Amazon that they can't ship large items to me via USPS but they can't seem to figure out how to handle it. I even asked them to not use USPS (they're unreliable anyway) but they're stick in a loop. I'm openly and publicly doing this and they don't care. It's stupid. Thankfully it's a low priority item and I don't actually need it. Some day it will show up... maybe. Walmart, if you can figure out that problem, you'll have my money.

seattle_spring 7y ago
That effort does not at all sound worth a $5 Amazon gift card
- igetspam 7y ago
  There's almost no effort. It takes less than five minutes each time, to both order and request a credit. I've wasted a lot more time than that on trying to get them to remove USPS as a shipping option. At this point, it's just a game for me.
  - codemac 7y ago
    A dollar a minute == $60/hr Or around 120k/yr @ 40hr/wk over 50 weeks, pre-tax.
    - axaxs 7y ago
      I'm not sure you'd report that as taxable income, so it would probably be closer to 'post-tax'.

leesec 7y ago

This is still only on orders over $35. Walmart still does not realize what Bezo's has done with Prime. He has made it the default option and incentivized users to check there first by removing all the friction. Having these weird caveats and no 'membership' (which again, makes users think of Prime first) is going to keep Walmart behind for a long while.

objektif 7y ago
Walmart did realize what AMZN did with prime membership. But they probably also realized their customer base wont pay for another membership.
- lintroller 7y ago
  They already have a bulk retail subscription with Sams Club. A membership that includes access to both the retail store and one-day walmart.com shipping could be attractive.
  - dfrage 7y ago
    Possible evidence they could be thinking about this: a few minutes ago I filled out a survey of their's about my last Walmart.com purchase, and one of the questions asked was if I, or an immediate family member had a Sam's Club membership.
SolaceQuantum 7y ago
Prime has weird caveats also, though. eg. small objects like personal grooming supplies, snacks, etc. are much more expensive if they're offered through Prime at all. (Most are offered through 'prime pantry' which forces you to buy at least 25$ worth of stuff).

wpietri 7y ago

What I wonder: why did it take them this long? Walmart has warehouse-sized stores that are close to almost everybody. And most of America's houses are already visited 6 days a week by a delivery person. Walmart could and should have made a deal with the USPS a decade ago. It would have been great for all concerned. Instead, they let Amazon practically own the concept, eating away at their huge distribution advantage.

joering2 7y ago
Deal with USPS? Would be hard to find a manager who can make this work and not obviously post it as a huge disaster on their resumee. USPS continues to bleed money, is always understaffed, continues to misplace the mail and is bugged with pretty old technology that is hard to upgrade. Add unions to it and you have a perfect government entity altho USPS is not actually a government organisation. If anything it would make more sense for Amazon mail to offer USPS a helping hand ;)
- atwebb 7y ago
  I have had way less issues with USPS than UPS, especially considering the volume of mail coming via USPS. I think it is underpriced for the value it delivers, especially media mail.
  - neilv 7y ago
    I generally really like using the USPS, though not as much as when I could ship a Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box for $4.95. USPS is very effective for some purposes, and I have the impression that, overall, they take integrity of delivery seriously. I also like that the workers are getting pensions, and the ones I see seem committed to the work. USPS's reputation has also saved a few eBay sales, when the buyer said they didn't receive the item. I ask the buyer to please double-check that it didn't get mixed in with the junk mail or something, and say that, if it's not there, I'll refund them in full immediately and ask the USPS Postal Investigator to figure out what happened. Every double-check thus far has found the package.
- 7y ago

KIFulgore 7y ago

WalMart.com lost me at limiting my password to 12 characters.

bradenb 7y ago

I actually ordered a CPU from Walmart.com a few days ago. It'll take a week to get to me, but it's still amazing to me that the order happened at all.

dfrage 7y ago
My goodness, they sell a bunch: https://www.walmart.com/search/?cat_id=0&facet=retailer%3AWalmart.com&query=intel+cpu#searchProductResult https://www.walmart.com/search/?cat_id=0&facet=retailer%3AWa... (substitute amd for intel in that query if you prefer) including a $1,629 Ryzen Threadripper $70 cheaper than Newegg, free 2 day delivery or local store pickup. The multi-thousand dollar Xeons seem to be more in the receive next week category, but a couple of the most expensive 18 or 28 core, $3K plus or minus, are 2 day, at or just a bit more expensive than what Newegg is charging for them.

rock_hard 7y ago

Too little too late!

Someone1234 7y ago

Target is also experimenting with this locally. When you order something online, instead of shipping it from a warehouse, it is instead shipped directly from a local Target store via UPS (you can tell from the shipping label). I've had several things delivered next day as a direct result. The major difference is that Target aren't yet advertising that this will be the case, and therefore don't guarantee it or similar. But I anticipate we'll see Target officially announce this service when they've worked out the kinks.

netcan 7y ago

Delivering physical goods is a surprisingly persistent problem. Circa 2003, my thinking was that by the time amazon inevitably folds and the next generation of ecommerce takes over, commodity delivery systems will have gotten good enough to enable a drop-shipping future. The sites would be aggregators (stumbleupon, digg, etc.) with a good UI and packages would come directly from wholesalers and manufacturers. Meanwhile, it's the 20s and delivery is still a strategic capability that the largest companies on earth compete on.

bob_theslob646 7y ago

It is for orders above 35 dollar and only available on certain items? How is this a shot back? Does Amazon have a money printing side business that allows them to subsidize/ keep prices near 0? Until then, this is the equivalent of pissing in the wind. If I was an investor, this looks like WMT opex just increased big time.

w8rbt 7y ago

I'm pulling for Walmart! I've seen the death of so many stores that I dearly miss (Sears, JC Penny, etc.). I can no longer get good hand tools or good t-shirts locally. And, the online stores are full of rip-offs and forgeries. Walmart is the last bastion of honest retail (where I can talk to a fellow human in person). I really hope they make it.

naravara 7y ago
>I'm pulling for Walmart! I've seen the death of so many stores that I dearly miss (Sears, JC Penny, etc.). I can no longer get good hand tools or good t-shirts locally. And, the online stores are full of rip-offs and forgeries. Walmart is the last bastion of honest retail (where I can talk to a fellow human in person). I really hope they make it. I kind of feel the same way, but damn if this isn't one of those things that me from 15 years ago would think was insane. People like Microsoft? Apple is being brought up on anti-trust issues? Walmart is "good" now? What even is this reality we live in?
j-c-hewitt 7y ago
Just so you know, Walmart is not the underdog. Walmart sells many multiples the volume that Amazon does, and to boot, most of the products sold are owned by Walmart. Amazon is merely a fee-taker on the majority of the product sales that it facilitates.
- WhompingWindows 7y ago
  Can you post evidence to support those claims?
  - mediaman 7y ago
    These are not controversial claims. Walmart revenue is $514 billion. Amazon revenue is $232 billion. Currently, about half of the retail revenue of Amazon is marketplace sales, where Amazon does not own the merchandise but simply warehouses it on consignment and charges fulfillment fees, or in some cases simply places a drop-ship order for it.

vfulco2 7y ago

I tried to get a pair of airbuds delivered to upstate NY. Two weeks after they were lost in transit, WMT put the onus on me to speak with the shipper and track down. I canceled. Amazon has nothing to fear.

whoisjuan 7y ago
That Amazon announcement was a bait in disguise. Amazon can pull this off because they have massive logistics efficiencies that are optimized for their e-commerce business. Walmart has to do way more because their core business is still walk-in retail. They have to literally force their model to make this happen and that's why you get low reliability on the customer offering and an unprofitable dynamic in the business operation.
- dfrage 7y ago
  There's some forcing for sure, but they already had a lot of the hard parts in place when they started the process. I've witnessed since the fall of 2016 their sending me many packages from various locations to almost always shipping one package, and without any promises many of those packages then and now arrive the next day if I order them in the morning.

UncleChis 7y ago

One thing I don't understand why Walmart hasn't invested in: change the web interface!!! Their website is just not attractive at all!!!

degenerate 7y ago
They're shooting to keep it as close to the in-store experience as possible, in that regard ;)
- dfrage 7y ago
  You joke, but with the recent update they do have similar design aesthetics. If you're already a happy Walmart physical store customer that's perfectly OK, "familiar" is a good thing, even if it's not as attractive as you'd like. I personally wouldn't say the design aesthetic for either is "attractive", but they're pretty clean and functional, and that is worth a lot. Walmart.com transactions are now a bit easier than Amazon, before you factor in the tremendous amount of effort the latter requires to avoid counterfeits. Walmart.com search is a lot better once you get the right terms, and turn off 3rd parties which they make trivial.
astura 7y ago
What do you find wrong with the web interface? I think its fine?
s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
Neither is Amazon's

jefe_ 7y ago

Whenever Walmart is mentioned I like to use the rise of Dollar General to illustrate my complete lack of confidence in anything the company attempts. How on earth did Walmart see the rise of Dollar General and not think: hey we could do that, or hey we should buy them, or hey Amazon has slow rural deliveries let's innovate there. They simply gave it a half-effort attempt and then gave up the small town / discount markets (which contained many loyal existing customers), blinded by their efforts to become Amazon and attract customers who don't care about Walmart brand. Dollar General's stock has doubled over the past 5 years and has a market cap of $30 billion, I have difficulty believing anything Walmart can do in efforts to become Amazon will add value equivalent to acquiring or cloning Dollar General around 2009. The thing that really kills me is that when Dollar General started gaining momentum during recession in 2009, Walmart was still nearly three times as large as Amazon and could have used Dollar General strategies to put Amazon on the defensive in some markets, but for some reason they didn't and have been struggling to figure things out ever since. I don't even have a horse in the race, and probably dislike Walmart when I really think about it, but every time I see a Dollar General I start thinking about this and end up getting frustrated that a company could so fundamentally lose it's way, striving for something it will never have.

FraaJad 7y ago
I agree. I was in a dollar general recently in a different city (just killing time) and i think they are actually more appealing to shop than a walmart. (I shop in neither usually). DG gives an impression of small, local run (which I know they are not) shop with pretty decent service, and walmart doesn't feel like that.
smogcutter 7y ago
Dollar General is a vulture that swoops in to clean the corpse of towns that Walmart has killed. Your argument that walmart isn't racing to the bottom efficiently enough could be right on its own terms, but what's the point? It's like arguing over which ocean to dump plastic waste into.
- pnutjam 7y ago
  Dollar General and Family Dollar are not Dollar stores. They are small retailers who sell a limited inventory of groceries and such. They are also closing alot of under-performing stores this year. I think Wal-mart might have known more then people give then credit for.

RickJWagner 7y ago

My family has started using Walmart's grocery pickup service. You select your groceries online, then schedule a pick-up time. You drive up at the agreed upon time, Walmart workers come out and load your car trunk with groceries. You never leave the car. Walmart's not sitting still.