Long term, I absolutely believe that this technology will be adopted by consumers. This is still a test as the article points out. There are still logistical issues to address before this can scale. I think about the cost of the appliances that have to be installed. Who’s paying for those? If it’s the grocer the length of time it will take to make this get positive ROI is years. It also assumes that the customer is only using the boxes with their brand, what happens when you get a box from Walmart and they use it for a competitor or for personal use? I expect that long term consumers will end up paying for the box, and then get incentives from the grocers to use their service in some sort of subscription scheme. We’ll see. I do believe that we will figure this out, the value proposition is too strong to ignore.

How can this not work? To say that it makes abundant sense is an understatement. Sure there are lots of details to figure out, but it could be an incredible time saver. The flipside is the ripple effect. Meaning that the trip to the grocery store is often the basis of several other errands. The bank, dry cleaners, hardware store — whatever. And if the shopper still has to make all these other stops, is that a reason to continue to do the grocery shopping themselves? Time savings and convenience will ultimately win the day, but it will be interesting to see how other shopping dynamics are affected.

Convenience, convenience, convenience! I live in an apartment with a doorman, so the issues that people who live in houses deal with do not affect me. But the question is, how reluctant are people who live in houses to accept deliveries when they are not present? This is a set to solve part of the problem. It is likely the first step for Walmart that will lead to secure drop off of all Walmart orders. This discussion is not dissimilar from one this group had several months ago about the Amazon Room. If one defines the problem as people being reluctant in any way to order online because they feel they must be home to receive the order, these solutions solve the problem. If you solve this challenge, does it mean that less people go to the store and more shop comfortably online? Yes. But the objective is not to get people to the store, the objective is to sell more merchandise. In five to 10 years every home will have some type of universal… Read more »

While it’s certainly worth testing, the logistical challenges of finding a spot and providing power will be a barrier for most customers. Never mind how many will disappear from front porches.

This is a logical evolution. Isn’t it? Single-family homes are a good target segment for this. Safety concerns will limit adoption, but it is too early to say anyway. After all, Walmart pulled the plug on robotic aisle management after years of testing.

How many ways can retailers find to pay customers to accept home delivery? The home delivery market simply won’t end up big enough (after the pandemic) to justify all these costs added on top of delivery costs. There’s a train wreck coming — and as usual Amazon’s deep pockets are taunting retailers into mistakes.

Take a deep breath and focus on core business. That’s where true long term strength is to be found.

Am I really the only one that remembers Streamline? This entire process was attempted in 1999 or so. Streamline would put their refrigerators in your garage, as I recall. And (to repeat the mantra), the problem wasn’t the market, it was the same old problem – making money at it.

Streamline has been consigned to the dustbin of history. I hope Walmart can do better.

Smart box technology on its face sounds smart! How big will a smart box be when it is comprised of three separate temperature-controlled compartments? Will the smart box resemble a refrigerator type appliance on the front porch? With possible 24/7 delivery, how will drones be able to access a smart box? Will smart box delivery drivers keep people awake at night, opening and shutting smart boxes, loading in groceries, and then starting up their truck again to go to the next home? Recently approved FFA laws gave the go-ahead to drones to deliver packages to homes. The human environmental impact of all this traffic and noise in neighborhoods especially at night, versus the trade-off of visiting a retail store for food is a really important consideration to protect livability for everyone. Especially important in densely populated multi-family neighborhoods where townhomes and apartments are all stacked on top of one another. Convenience at scale has a cost, a human cost yet uncalculated by those who seek to monetize new forms of convenience. A cost consumers have… Read more »

Eventually this may be a way of locking a consumer in to a delivery partner who supplied the box, but after testing the acceptance of this type of solution someone is going to have to figure out the economics. A non-powered “attractive enough” locking package mail box that Amazon or others can put medium-sized packages into costs north of $100. Who’s going to pay for these?

The race to mitigate the last mile of grocery home delivery has been on for the past few years. Walmart and Amazon continue to experiment with innovative strategies to make the process more seamless for the consumers and profitable. This Walmart temperature-controlled smart box is a unique way of making the process even more efficient.

However the issue here is who will absorb the additional costs of maintaining and owning the boxes? As the economies of scales ramp up, are the consumers going to absorb ownership and maintenance costs? While this would take a larger step in solidifying the relationship between Walmart and the consumers, there are plenty of questions that need to be resolved.

A concept that is way overdue. We have seen the effects of smart appliances. Now we will see technology that reduces the compromise that buyers have had to make to receive home delivery. Good move that I suspect will be copied by competitors.

I knew Tim and the Streamline folks very well, so I’m pretty familiar with why it didn’t work. One of the problems is that when you put temperature controlled boxes in a garage, a scary number of consumers run into them with their cars, lawnmowers, snowblowers, etc., etc. Streamline also hit “last mile” and cost walls, both of which have been mitigated a bit by time.

The real issue is, are garages “trending” (Roughly 40% of American live without garages and/or carports), and what do you do in urban cores where apartments are more prevalent? As to the cost question, that’s a math problem — categories of goods shipped, volume, route consolidation opportunities, etc.

Not sure if this will turn around the industry, but I can still recall that in the 1950s, home delivery of milk permeated over 50% of US households. This dropped to about 30% in the ’60s. It wasn’t out of scope in terms of cost, and more important, scalability allowed dairies to send their milkmen to each household (like mail services and postal services today).

Will it be accepted? Yes, far more than having strangers enter your home and put stuff in your fridge or garage. Inversely, we’ve accepted concepts like garbage and recycling in specific containers, why wouldn’t this kind of solution be exactly the impetus consumers need to accept grocery. Locker distribution will be local to the housing unit, not to some nearby store. Need to watch this space.

Eventually consumers will need strong, heavy, sturdy, expensive boxes that can not easily be carried away. One retailer can not cover that cost. If Walmart’s experiment is successful, then I would expect that there will be a movement for a standard because consumers will not want a whole line of boxes, one for each retailer delivering to them.

The connected “milk box” and temperature controlled deliveries are not exactly a brand new idea. (See others here who remember Streamline fondly.) Walmart’s pilot with HomeValet is a fact-finding mission, it seems to me. It will likely come down to specifications and execution. How big does the box need to be? Where do we put it? Does the homeowner control who accesses or Walmart only? I’ve got more: Who is responsible for digging it out of the snow? Can the customer use it to send out returns? Will its appearance be compatible with home décor? For new-built homes, I’d probably favor a “delivery airlock” setup instead — with an exterior door that can be opened digitally by delivery people and an internal door that can be opened from the pantry, garage or laundry room. A key advantage would be the ability to accept larger items, even dry-cleaning on hangars. Temperature control is a good option, but may not be crucial. Walmart’s smart delivery boxes could be a good solution for a segment of its customer… Read more »

This technology is an innovative way to address current challenges, but it’s important to make sure the solutions your brand offers continually meet a real customer need. Smart boxes may be a shiny new object now, but as people do eventually return to stores post-pandemic, it will be necessary to balance the demand for this technology and the value it generates against the resources used to produce it.