The Walmart + home screen on a laptop, set up in the Brooklyn Borough of New York, USA, on Wednesday, November 18, 2020.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Walmart already delivers groceries to customers’ doors, and in some cities it puts them right in their refrigerator. The company said Tuesday that it will soon be testing another convenient approach: delivery to a smart cooler on the client’s porch or near their door.
Starting in the spring, the big-box retailer said it will start a pilot in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. It will provide participating customers with a temperature-controlled smart cooler called a HomeValet. The cool box is placed outside their home, so that groceries can be delivered safely and without contact around the clock.
“The prospect of this technology is intriguing, both for customers and for Walmart’s last mile delivery efforts,” said Tom Ward, Walmart US senior vice president of customer product in a post on the company’s website. “For customers, they don’t have to schedule their day when their groceries will be delivered. For Walmart, it offers the ability to deliver items 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
However, he said the retailer has no plans for 24-7 deliveries yet.
Walmart will test grocery delivery at a HomeValet, a smart cool box placed outside of customers’ homes.
Walmart is the largest grocery store in the US and has made free, unlimited grocery delivery a central benefit of its new subscription-based service, Walmart +. The service, which launched in September, costs $ 98 per year or $ 12.95 per month compared to Amazon Prime, which costs $ 119 per year or $ 12.99 per month. It includes other perks like fuel discounts and access to a smartphone app that allows buyers to skip checkout.
The retail giant launched its grocery delivery service in 2018. During the pandemic, Walmart and other retailers saw online grocery shopping gain in popularity as customers look for convenient and contactless ways to stock their pantries and refrigerators from home delivery through last-mile delivery. services like Instacart to pick up outside of a retail store.
Even before the global health crisis, Walmart was experimenting with new grocery delivery options. In 2019, it launched a membership program called InHome Grocery Delivery to Select Cities, which puts fresh fruit, meat and other groceries straight into customers’ refrigerators for $ 19.95 per month. It requires additional security measures, including a smart door lock kit or smart garage door kit with shoppers and a background check and additional training for employees.
The service still operates in select cities: Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Vero Beach, Florida, and West Palm Beach, Florida. During the pandemic, the company changed its approach to meet local restrictions, a company spokeswoman said: It only delivers kitchen supplies in Pittsburgh. In the other cities, it places stuff just inside the door of houses or in garages.
With the new HomeValet pilot, groceries are left in rectangular coolers developed by a start-up. They have three zones where groceries can be stored at different temperatures, including frozen, refrigerated or stored at room temperature such as in a pantry. To make a delivery, a Walmart employee can use a device to lock and unlock the smart cooler.