Walmart Is Piloting a Pricier 2-Hour 'Express' Grocery Delivery Service (techcrunch.com) 37
Walmart confirmed today it's launching a new Walmart Grocery service called "Express," which promises orders in two hours or less for an upcharge of $10 on top of the usual delivery fee. TechCrunch reports: The service has been in pilot testing across 100 Walmart stores in the U.S. since mid-April. Walmart says it plans to expand the service to nearly 1,000 stores in early May and it will be offered in a total of nearly 2,000 stores in the weeks after. Some Walmart customers may have recently received a push notification alerting them to the launch.
To use Express delivery, you first fill your online Walmart Grocery cart with the $30 minimum required for delivery orders or more. The Express service offers more than 160,000 items from across Walmart's grocery, consumables and general merchandise categories. At checkout, you'll see an option beneath the calendar where you pick a delivery date to select the Express service. In many cases, there may not be other standard delivery time slots available for the current day or even several days out, which makes the Express service even more appealing to shoppers who need their orders sooner.
To use Express delivery, you first fill your online Walmart Grocery cart with the $30 minimum required for delivery orders or more. The Express service offers more than 160,000 items from across Walmart's grocery, consumables and general merchandise categories. At checkout, you'll see an option beneath the calendar where you pick a delivery date to select the Express service. In many cases, there may not be other standard delivery time slots available for the current day or even several days out, which makes the Express service even more appealing to shoppers who need their orders sooner.
Re:Pricier? (Score:5, Insightful)
Walmart should just give this service away for free. Jesus, we're in the middle of a pandemic here!
Services needed to deal with the pandemic should be fairly priced so that companies have incentives to provide them.
If express service was free, then everybody would tick the "express" checkbox (why not?) and, since resources are limited, only some of them would receive it.
Market pricing ensures that those who want fast delivery the most get it. It also incentives Walmart to expand the service.
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In Montreal, Walmart grocery delivery slots only open a week in advance and get filled up within a few seconds. They're clearly way over capacity, so I'm not sure they should be offering an "express" option to begin with. If you want to prioritize anybody, prioritize seniors and the vulnerable, not people who have more money than them.
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Same day delivery, no extra fees of any type....they use Instacart, but I just log in through my Costco account and I guess they have a deal with IC for free delivery.
I do tip incredibly well tho....I appreciate the service.
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That's not different from now, only that whether you receive it is not dependent on whether you're lucky you got the delivery on time but whether you're lucky to afford it.
Get what you didn't order - even faster! (Score:3)
...and more expensively. They are short on everything and substitutions galore. Honestly, who would think walnuts are a suitable substitute for pecans?
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As we start to have shortages of meat and other things, I hope online ordering will provide a way to ration things a bit more equitably, instead of it being down to luck and time-wasting activities like waiting in lines, going to the store constantly, and hoarding as much as possible whenever you can.
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There is a single solution to all the problems you mention (shortages, rationing, hoarding): Market prices.
Market-clearing prices incentivize producers and distributors, so the shortage is alleviated.
Market prices incentivize customers to conserve and find substitutes, so rationing is not needed.
Market prices penalize hoarding by making it more expensive.
In normal times, markets work better than central planning.
During a crisis, markets work better than central planning.
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Sure, replace protein with lard if you can't afford it. I mean, of course it's not healthy, but hey, if you wanted to be healthy you should have been born rich.
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Better than replacing rectal thermometers with spark plugs...
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Grocery delivery. Meh. (Score:1)
Maybe if they delivered anything more than a couple cans of soup and a loaf of bread.
Try getting a few 2L bottles of soda.
NOPE! Gotta come into the store!
Most of these grocery delivery setups in my area (around Chicago) are a fucking joke.
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And even if they say things are available for delivery, by the time your delivery slot comes up at 8:00, the shelves are bare, so you still don't get anything.
IMO, the main problem is that the corporate response to coronavirus has been a**-backwards.
How do you maximize safety? By minimizing the number of people in the store at any given time. So what do they do instead? They reduce the number of hours so they can have more time to stock up, so now there are too many people. How do they solve that? By
Re: Grocery delivery. Meh. (Score:2)
Put the soda down angry chad
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I ain't angry.
I'm irritated.
There's smart ways to deal with stocking and delivery.
And NOBODY does them right.
Jewel-Osco is big here in Chicago. They have a huge, centrally located warehouse.
So, do the deliveries run from a heavily stocked warehouse?
NAHHHH!
They run them right out of the stores, with limited stocks!
Maximum Derpitude.
At what point (Score:2)
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It's not gouging if it's optional (Score:3)
They are charging more for faster delivery. The items themselves don't cost anymore than before unless the supplier has raised their prices (e.g. eggs). This is nothing new.
But truthfully I find delivery services, especially Walmart's, failing in this pandemic. So many items are listed as out-of-stock or "in store only", and delivery times are so slow, that I actually order less than I used to. I've had much more success getting staples by walking into the store.
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Don't worry, the rich get screwed on this one too. I tried this higher-priced express service today.
Here is how this pricier service actually works.
1. Place express order by 4:27pm . I'm offered an 85 minute guarantee rather than 55 minutes elsewhere because I live in a mansion is in the hills
2. Delivery estimate 5:12pm to 5:52pm
3. Get very confusing texts from a Doordash driver at 5:20pm who says "they" are not helping him and he is going to cancel.
4. Order is still in the "preparing" stage, even though al
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I had been looking for a slot every day. My cart was already full so I just clicked "checkout" this afternoon. No, I didn't have a coupon. I am immuno-compromised so I figured it was worth paying the $18.90 premium to avoid going to the store. Big mistake.
The strange things is that all the items on my order were marked as either "picked" or "out of stock" around 5pm. Only 6 were out of stock. But who knows where they actually are in the store at this point.
At least Instacart was able to make a successful de
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Making it so only the rich can afford a necessary service doesn't seem right.
Having someone hand deliver you food within 2 hours is so far from the definition of a "necessary service" that I wonder if you even posted this comment in the right story.
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too expensive (Score:2)
sounds like it is too expensive. regular delivery fee, 10 extra, plus tip. unless you spend several hundred dollars, its just not worth it. maybe it would be better several shoppers got together and placed one order.
Expresshit (Score:2)
counter-productive (Score:2)
to soon (Score:2)
Customer Service Isn't Walmart's Expertise... (Score:2)
Walmart's advantage has always been on price. They are going to struggle competing on convenience because they simply don't have enough experienc