Thursday, June 8, 2017
Walmart is testing a giant self-service kiosk in the parking lot of a Supercenter in Warr Acres, Oklahoma, that allows customers to pick up their online grocery orders without interacting with employees.
The 20-foot-by-80-foot Walmart Pickup kiosk has refrigerators and freezers inside that keep the groceries fresh, according to a Business Insider report. When customers arrive to pick up their orders, they walk up to the kiosk, type in a code, and their groceries appear within a minute. The kiosk is open 24/7 and can to fulfill hundreds of customer orders in a single day, according to a Walmart spokesman.
There is no cost for picking up groceries, but customers must spend at least $30 per order to use the service.
Walmart is also testing a smaller Pickup structure in some of its stores for picking up non-grocery online orders. The pickup kiosks are part of a broader effort by Walmart to more seamlessly integrate its online and offline services, and leverage the power of its vast network of stores to better compete with Amazon, the news report says.
