Walmart tests drive-through grocery concept

Earlier this week, Walmart debuted its Walmart Pickup - Grocery service to registered customers in its hometown of Bentonville, AR. Plans to build and test the concept were announced earlier this year by former Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon.

The test concept, which is a free service, involves customers placing their orders online any time from two hours to three weeks in advance. Customers drive to the Walmart Pickup - Grocery warehouse and use a kiosk to notify attendants that they are ready to pick up their orders. Walmart associates bring orders out to customers' cars. In total, shoppers have about 10,000 items to choose from, including dairy, meat and produce as well as HBC and household items.

A video posted on YouTube by a Walmart customer who used the service along with his three children described it as the "least painful shopping trip ever!"

"Shopping eats up time and can be a major inconvenience for parents with small children and the elderly and infirm," Carol Spieckerman, CEO of newmarketbuilders, told The City Wire. "This is also a great way for Walmart to make the most of its digital platform, to acclimate more customers to using it and to gather more information on its customers' searching and shopping habits as they place orders online."

Walmart Pickup - Grocery follows the test of another drive-through format, Zoomin Market, which opened to an enthusiastic response in Olathe, KS earlier this year. Zoomin, which bills itself as "the next big idea in grocery," is located in an area of 125,000 people. Population density is said to be key to the success of drive-through grocery concepts.

• Walmart Grocery Pickup - YouTube
• Wal-Mart opens its Pickup Grocery format in Northwest Arkansas - The City Wire
• Walmart Pick-Up Grocery Concept Opens - KFSM
• New drive-thru grocery concept gets rave reviews - RetailWire
• B-Roll: Walmart Pickup - Grocery Test Opens in Northwest Arkansas - Walmart