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Walmart Grocery is now offering a $98 per year ‘Delivery Unlimited’ subscription
- josep2 7y agoWe have a subscription (For about 3 months) and it's been a great value for us. We order things like bread, some staples for our 2-year-old and some other packaged goods for about $40 a week. Walmart uses DoorDash for delivery in our area and we can usually place an order and have it delivered 2-3 hours later. One negative aspect of using the service is Walmart seems to have a hard time knowing what will be in stock even a few hours from order. Every order we've done (around 12) has had a missing item due to it being out of stock.
- toomuchtodo 7y agoWe had the same issue with Walmart pickup, and switched to Target pickup instead. Substitution/stock issues disappeared, and we found Target pickup to be more frictionless.
- paulie_a 7y agoWalmart has always had problems for online purchases. Ship to store is a really half assed service.
- _red 7y agoI really want Walmart to succeed in online delivery because I don't want Amazon to gobble everything. Recently, I was shopping for a media entertainment cabinet. Its for our upstairs media room, so I wasn't super concerned about it being "nice furniture". I went and checked at our local Walmart and found a piece that would work. Instead of trying to load the 180lb piece into my car by myself, I thought "I'll just order online and have it delivered to my door and take it upstairs in pieces" When it was delivered I was out and when I returned I discovered they sent me the wrong item (desk instead of media center). Went online to start the return process and the only option given was "return to your local store". Luckily the desk was only 90lbs, but still it was a chore to load this in a car, drive to walmart, then at walmart there's no flat handtrucks or dollys, so had to wrestle into regular cart to bring to service desk. They processed the return quickly and had the right media center in stock, but now I was back to square one: How to load a 190lb piece in my car using a standard shopping cart? By Amazon being a 100% online store, they were forced to develop sane and customer friendly approaches to handling these types of issues. Because Walmart has never had to deal with these things, they are very lacking in handling these edge cases. I still plan to use Walmart online, but will be very cognizant of what I'm ordering given their return process.
- arkades 7y agoWhat's the produce selection and quality like? I tried Prime Now, Peapod, and Freshdirect so far. FD is the most reliably good, but there's no same-day delivery, and it's the most expensive. Peapod also has no same-day, often misses items, and isn't That much cheaper. Prime Now has the same-day, but so far, on three occasions, they've delivered subpar produce I'd never have picked myself, super stale bread, and damaged-during-delivery produce, for only slightly less than the cost of freshdirect. I like same-day delivery of goods, but not same-day delivery of bads.
- keanebean86 7y agoI worked at 3 walmarts in 2 states over about 7 years. They all had issues with inventory. Corporate has been trying to fix the issue for years with different technology. They bought into RFID tech pretty heavily but it didn't really work as advertised. It seems the plan was to interrogate tags as they come off the truck since they had readers on both sides of the loading dock. Even with my limited experience with RFIDs I can see that not working. Passive RFIDs are only reliable when you have line of sight. Active and semi-passive tags work far better but they're way more expensive. When unloading the truck you need to deal with box orientation, un-loader's watery bodies, and equipment. Now the readers look abandoned and in disrepair. Later they re-purposed the Layaway system to assign cases/items to locations in the back room. It was an amazing idea but it's fundamentally flawed in a few ways. 1. Adding and removing items is too slow and unreliable. The portable terminals lose connection or take seconds to process scans. Those seconds add up when scanning hundreds of boxes. 2. Each item/case requires a label that takes time to print 3. Large quantities of unsold special items can fill precious backroom space. This requires hunting for holes to add new, normal items. 4. Lack of time results in corners being cut. Items are not scanned or they fall behind stacks of other boxes and are lost. Add in theft and items being left in the wrong place by customers and it's not hard to have a seriously messed up inventory. What I would like to see is a store where all merchandise is kept in the stockroom. Customers scan bar-codes on the shelf or on displays. A team in the back picks the items from inventory and meets the customer at the door after payment is made. Of course that would require a major change to story layouts, staffing, and customer expectations so I doubt it will ever happen. Edit: spelling errors
- gonesilent 7y agoSears had a line of stores back in the early 90's like that. Everything in the store was a display and you took around a little clipboard. Name escapes me, maybe just a so-cal thing.
- currymj 7y agoThe idea dates back even further than that, to the failed but fascinating Keedoozle, the second venture attempted by Clarence Saunders, founder of Piggly Wiggly, after his financial ruin attempting to corner the market in his own stock. You'd go around the store, your selections would be punched into a card, and at the front your food would be automatically delivered via conveyor belt. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keedoozle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keedoozle
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- wincy 7y agoI live right down the street from Walmart so we wouldn’t get this, but using the Walmart Grocery app and picking up our order has been great. About six months ago a recruiter asked me if I was interested in moving to Bentonville. It’s been interesting to watch the app improve since then, they’re really putting a push on making it work well. It’s great because this has made us buy smaller orders so we waste less food, whereas before we’d make a semiweekly Costco run and most things would spoil.
- opportune 7y agoThat's interesting, I figure all of Walmart Labs was located in San Bruno. Or was this a non-tech position? If the pay is comparable to San Bruno and you can tolerate living in... Arkansas... I bet that money would go pretty far
- maxxxxx 7y agoWhat I have seen of arkansas was actually pretty nice.
- opportune 7y agoI'm from a similar area, I have a feeling you wouldn't consider it as nice if you were nonwhite, had a nonwhite SO, were LGBT, or got involved in the community outside the tech/corporate bubble (e.g. for kids). Or if you like more urban living. Or if you like more vibrant art/music communities. Or... Of course some people like it and if they do there's a big COL disparity to take advantage of, but there are lots of reasons you might not want to live in a place like that.
- someguydave 7y agohow does it feel to exhibit the generalizing stereotyping of thousands of humans you claim to abhor?
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- blhack 7y agoRetailers are chasing amazon on variety, and delivery, but I actually think the next evolution is curation. The loyalty my wife and I have to Costco (which, btw also has an incredibly cheap deliver option which is NOT a subscription) is pretty incredible. It’s gotten to the point where we trust the things they’re selling just by virtue of the fact that Costco sells them. Amazon, Walmart, etc all seems to be sprinting as fast as they can in the other direction. Their online stores for instance, feature an enormous variety of products, most of which aren’t actually in stock at the storefronts, which are a crapshoot of quality. I personally hope the future of retail looks a lot more like Costco than amazon and wal Mart.
- ars 7y ago> but I actually think the next evolution is curation. Curation has value, but not here. I shop walmart because they have everything. Costco has a far more limited shopping list, because there's tons of stuff they just don't have. Same for Aldi and Trader Joes, they are great for what they have, but it's not enough for my complete grocery needs.
- hyperbovine 7y agoThe name of the game is warping your grocery needs to whatever TJ's sells. My wife is a very very good cook (I'm no slouch but she is amazing), and we eat incredibly well off a combination of Trader Joe's, Costco, and the veggie box. It's gotten to the point where most of our recipes are denominated in terms of what these places sells. Lasagna? That's 2 28 oz. cans of Marinera Toscano sauce, 1 bag shredded mozz., 1 bag shredded quattro formaggio, 1 ricotta, 1 frozen spinach, etc. (All TJ's items). Funny enough, I just went to Aldi today for the first time, trying to figure out how it fits into the rotation.
- copperx 7y agoIs Veggie Box a store I haven't heard about?
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- Dylan16807 7y agoBut does this service give you the exact same prices you get in the store, including sales and coupons? Because that often seems to be a hidden cost.
- ApolloFortyNine 7y agoI'm wondering the same here, as instacart gives different prices online (usually not by much, but it adds up over an entire order of course).
- reaperducer 7y agoGood question. The reason I don't use the Kroger or Safeway online services is because the prices are severely marked up compared to my local stores. And I don't use Target's online shopping because it's freaking useless. Sandwich bread? Sorry, not available for pick-up in the stores near me. Sugar? Same story. Flour? Nope. What's the point of all those signs in Target's grocery section telling me I can order my food online? I miss Peapod. :(
- ars 7y agoI used to order from Walmart a lot, and then they raised prices online vs. in the store. Now I don't trust them, and hardly shop their website. Their store is far enough away that I only go monthly or less. They need to regain my trust and have the same prices online and in the store, or at least make it visible so I can decide if the "shipping" fee is worth it to me.
- robertAngst 7y agoWhat items did it seem like they raised it?
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- mlacks 7y agoI just want to comment that Wal-Mart isn’t “playing catch-up” to Amazon, but simply plugging up holes in their business plan. Critics of Wal-Mart’s online competency seem to forget that not only is Wal-Mart the largest company by revenue - on the planet - but Amazon doesn’t even crack the top 20. As far a business goes - an organization to provide value exchange - they are doing better than almost any other business in the world, depending on the metric you’re measuring with. [0] http://fortune.com/global500/ http://fortune.com/global500/
- oblib 7y agoWal-Mart is not the same as it was 20 years ago. They didn't do "groceries" back then and they tended to source some products from local businesses when possible. They had a local feel and devoted customer base. Not so much now though. The "Super Wal-Mart" we have now is pretty boring, makes you walk across that entire giant store to get a quart of oil and a bag of chips, and then lets you choose between "Self-Checkout" or a really long line at the one or two cash registers they have open. In places where an Aldi's has opened up they've put a serious dent in those Super Wal-Marts, and Costco just blows them away. Wal-Mart will have to do a lot more very soon to maintain same store sales numbers as those two competitors fill in the gaps.
- jdsully 7y agoIn mine they replaced the friendly greeters with stone faced security guards. The self checkouts also remind you that they're watching your every move with a dialog you must accept before paying.
- jimmaswell 7y agoI assume this is based on local theft statistics. The one near where I grew up has receipt-checkers but the one near where I live now (nicer area) didn't have anything of the sort. Walked out after buying a bunch of big objects not in bags and nobody interrupted me.
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- nkurz 7y agoHere's a map of locations where Walmart offers grocery delivery: https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/delivery/ https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/delivery/ And where they offer online ordering and free pickup: https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/pickup/ https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/pickup/
- mlevental 7y agohow do you figure out the radius of delivery?
- reaperducer 7y agoYou can punch in your ZIP code and it will let you know what stores deliver to you. I did this a couple of weeks ago and found out I'm not in any Wal-Mart zone. But the Whole Foods that's farther away? Amazon's on it like Oprah on a baked ham.
- dawnerd 7y agoMy area has delivery but the Unlimited landing page just redirects back to the grocery site. They want 9.95 per delivery.
- weq 7y agoIs anyone else worried about this race to the bottom? What the price our earth is paying for these services? And our communities? We talk about getting a fair go, yet actively idolise big-tech which is obliterating the low income jobs and widing the class divide with marketing tactics. The only thing i hear people talking about in this thread is _their_ bottom line. Not a single person considering the social and evironmental implications of their choices? Seems like tech is creating a bigger disconnect between reality and everyday lives. The corner shop run by a local family has morphed into some sick youtube family dream where toddlers unwrap consumables and hundreds of thousands of people become envious, pickup their phone, click some buttons, and are soon greated by a person at the door delivering them a token that makes them feel more apart of society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle
- jimmaswell 7y agoEither you drive to Wal Mart and pick the stuff up, or an employee delivers them to you, potentially making multiple deliveries in the same trip. Replacing pickup with delivery is carbon neutral at worst, assuming your vehicles are equally efficient. Likely the delivery vehicle was chosen for efficiency so it's better anyway.
- megaremote 7y agoThese are not the only two options.
- NotSammyHagar 7y agoI don't see another option (grow my own food, I live in a city?), can you elaborate?
- rgbrenner 7y agoAmazon has setup their business to compete against Walmart... that's the low-margin retail market. Low margin because they've both chosen low prices as their usp. Along with low margin comes all of the things we associate with both retailers: poor wages, poor working conditions, etc. At no point was Costco a direct Walmart competitor.. when they were founded, their innovation was creating the first retail warehouse club. Amazon and Walmart look so similar because they fully intend to compete with each other. Costco is just a different concept, and really an entirely different way to run a business than walmart and amazon. Considering both have exceeded Costco's revenues, it's very unlikely they would alter course to compete against the smaller Costco (although I also doubt they could make such a huge shift in strategy).
- dannyw 7y agoThere are places for both. For variety you go for Amazon or Walmart. For simplicity and confidence, Costco.
- pnutjam 7y agoSam's club offers a similar curated experience.
- rgbrenner 7y agook weird.. came back to this post.. and they separated from the post I replied to. To be clear, this is a reply to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20198779 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20198779 I think if HN is going to separate my reply from its parent, they should explain why. This reply makes more sense with context.
- robertAngst 7y agoI am close to the phase where fast food is slower than homecooked food. Between Ramen and Breakfast Burritos, I can cook faster than a drive to Taco Bell. I cannot see how groceries can be further optimized. More selection?
- AuthorizedCust 7y agoUnless they eliminate the expectation to tip, there's still a significant per-delivery fee.
- AuthorizedCust 7y agoThis is scammy. Walmart allows delivery drivers to collect tips, which means that $98/year is only an arbitrary portion of the cost of this service. Eliminate the tip to give me transparent pricing, and you may win me over.
- J_cst 7y agoJust yesterday I realized that also in my small city (in Italy, about 100k people on East coast) it's available an online service by which you can order your groceries online on a number of local stores and get it delivered at your home/office on a specific time for 5eur. For 2 of those n local stores you are "guaranteed' to pay the same prices as in store. They also offer a subscription service for 10eur/ month which allows you unlimited deliveries for any purchase whose value is greater than 30eur. The deliveries are taken care by "shoppers". One can become a "shopper" by signing up on their website. No mention of stores fidelity cards on their website. I have not yet tried it, but sounds convenient.
- educationdata 7y agoI enjoy the time walking inside the Grocery store (my neighborhood Walmart), looking around and picking stuff. I feel it's part of good life. Am I an outlier?
- jdhn 7y agoI don't mind it, the biggest issue for me is finding parking as I always seem to hit crowds of people whenever I go. I also like the idea of going around and picking out specific fresh produce. I like looking at the apples and bananas before I put them into my cart, as I trust my own QC over somebody elses.
- knowaveragejoe 7y agoThere's something really soothing to me about shopping for groceries later in the evening, say after 9 or so. I can't quite put my finger on it.
- Tempest1981 7y agoI needed a pair of Lithium AA batteries. I saw them in stock at Walmart.com (available for pickup today), so instead, I dropped by the store to grab them. I checked all of the battery displays, but couldn't find them. (I found Lithium AAA.) So I ordered them online. The next day, I got an email: "pickup order delayed, don't go to the store yet." A few days later, same thing. A few days later, "our apologies, your order has been canceled". I've had this issue 2 out of 5 times. Not great inventory control.
- weiming 7y agoRoughly mirrors my experience trying online ordering from Safeway. Figured they haven't yet automated processes in the way Amazon has.
- Tsubasachan 7y agoIn a country were you're never more than 1500 metres away from a supermarket I always find grocery delivery extremely lazy. Retail will die and I won't shed a tear but we don't need everything delivered...
- lammalamma25 7y agoTo each their own. Grocery delivery gives me 1-1.5 hours back on my weekend that I value quite a bit. Maybe not $10 a delivery but quite a bit.
- npip99 7y agoWhy is giving a "Delivery Unlimited" option considered to by "Taking on Target Shipt, Amazon Prime, etc"? It's just a reorganization of what you pay, since you're going to pay for those shipping costs one way or another. And it's going to be through increased prices of the items in their store. They didn't actually do anything at all. How do people fall for this?
- totaldude87 7y agoThe main problem i have with online grocery is this. If i want some mushroom , pretty sure ill spend 15 seconds to pick up the "fresh looking" one, while in online delivery someone gets to pick that out and its a coin flip on whether it would be fresh looking or not. Also, wouldn't the grocers want to clear out the first expiring products first (milk, spinach etc etc) than give out fresh ones .. How can we be sure on whats being delivered to us is fresh looking at least? Note : I've been pressing up the notion of "Fresh looking " vs "Fresh produce" as I mainly buy with how it looks to my eyes and i have no idea how to validate if a vegetable is actually fresh..