Wal-Mart Tests Online Grocery Delivery 229
fysdt writes "The world's biggest retailer had been rumored to be considering dipping its toe into online grocery delivery for the past few years. The 'Walmart To Go' test allows customers to visit Walmart.com to order groceries and consumables found in a Walmart store and have them delivered to their homes, the spokesman said. Products include fresh produce, meat and seafood, frozen, bakery, baby, over-the-counter pharmacy, household supplies and health and beauty items."
Yawn, it's taken them long enough... (Score:2, Interesting)
We've had that for at least 6 years now in New Zealand. Very useful, esp. when you get the discounted delivery offers. http://shop.countdown.co.nz/
Re:I object to delivery charges... (Score:4, Interesting)
Two major reasons for supermarkets charging a fee ...
1. The profit margin is presumably far lower than a food place.
2. The delivery people likely are regular hourly paid employees and aren't expected to be tipped; use company vehicles instead of their own.
Ron
Re:Not news... at least not in the UK... (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed - I can order online from any of three supermarkets - Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys,
At the moment, I'm unable to drive, as health problems are making it difficult for me
to get my licence. This also means I'm on a severe budget.
Online delivery means I don't have to drag a couple of bags home on the bus every
day or three - it's great!
It also means that with the aid of my freezer, I can eat really quite cheaply indeed.
I base my orders around buy-one-get-one-free, or half-price offers, and am at the
moment shopping around monthly.
One of them even has an online API! http://www.techfortesco.com/forum/index.php?board=1.0 [techfortesco.com]
Being able to complete an order at leisure, and to reflect on each purchases value and
calories/... has greatly trimmed my grocery bill and waistline.
I'm in a small village - 6 miles from the nearest town of 40K - no 'fast food' places will deliver.
Pretty Good (Score:4, Interesting)
When I moved out of my mother's basement I used the Albertson's delivery service until they shut it down. It was $14 per delivery, regardless of size, so I'd get all of my groceries for the month in one order.
It was a lot easier to avoid impulse buying and to plan out what was actually needed when I could place the order online. Albertson's would remember your previous order so it was easy to just adjust it slightly each month.
Has been working fine... (Score:3, Interesting)
Has been working fine in Belgium for about 10 years or so. Several of the major stores offer this service for a small fee.
Re:Why Walmart and not WholeFoods or Trader Joes? (Score:4, Interesting)
Walmart is not known for having quality food. Why is it so difficult to find a delivery service for quality food but so easy to find a delivery service from Stop and Shop or Walmart?
Trader Joe's would rather you come into the store. The food itself is only part of the experience shopping there, the demo program, employees that actually talk to you, and the generous return policy are some of the things that make Trader Joe's unique.
Disclaimer: I have worked there for 5 years, 3 in a management position, multiple stores. I can't speak for Whole Foods, but I would imagine they would also want customers to come into the store instead of just "getting the food".
Re:I object to delivery charges... (Score:4, Interesting)
Indeed. Albertson's has an interesting idea going, they've got basically three tiers of service, do it yourself, pickup and delivery. You pay a bit to have the groceries waiting for you when you stop by, but the cost of it can be a deal if you're in a situation of having to pay for daycare for an additional hour.
Re:They are late to the party, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
A food's ability to be delivered depends a lot on how well it handles a 30 minute wait. Pizza is okay luke warm, cold, or re-heated. Chinese isn't so great cold, but you can insulate it pretty well and keep it warm enough for arrival, same with Indian food (both reheat okay). Cold sandwiches/subs deliver fine too.
A burger, on the other hand, gets soggy, cold, and disgusting by the 30 minute mark. Fries are similar. These days most fast food places have pretty fast turnover of their fries, and within about 15 minutes of them being left out they're a pale imitation of how good they taste when you first get them. Tex-Mex is similar - tacos get soggy, so much that Taco Bell tastes much worse if you get it in the drive through and drive 10 minutes home with it.
On the other hand, fried chicken products tend to do okay with the wait time. So while we don't see very many chicken-only delivery places, the major pizza chains often add chicken wings to their delivery options.
Re:They are late to the party, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Walmart's profit on sales is very low - something like 3.5% across all merchandise. Grocery items have even smaller profit margins. For this to have even a slight chance of success the delivery fee will need to be tiny as the average Walmart customer is just that cost conscious. That tiny fee could easily be eaten up given even the smallest change in gas prices. I buy nearly all my groceries at Walmart. Given the choice of a $10 delivery fee and actually going to the store I will go to the store every single time.
I live near Walmart's home office, and I have to tell you, Walmart is scared. They are entering unfamiliar territory and they do not know what to do. Other than a few isolated urban pockets, there is no where left for Walmart to expand. You can go to the middle of Alaska and there is a Walmart there. Walmart's years of explosive growth have ended. The stock price has barely budged over the last 10 years. While sales increase, the profit on those sales is decreasing. Something Walmart is trying to pilot here are stores in small towns (pop. 2500) that compete with dollar stores (Family Dollar, Dollar General). This not only breaks their distribution model (large trucks over large roads to large stores) but will drain sales from their existing large stores. Those smaller stores in smaller markets will have even smaller profit margins. Walmart isn't chasing pennies any longer, they are chasing hundredths of cents. Walmart is not innovating they are copying. This grocery delivery trial is just the latest attempt by Walmart of trying something (anything) to reverse what is in all likelihood a slow but inevitable death. Walmart isn't going away anytime soon, but they are going away.