include curbside pickup and online grocery
delivery and cater to time-starved shoppers.
And it comes as the world’s largest retailer
is locked in an arms race with online leader
Amazon.com to bring packages faster and faster
to customers’ homes. Amazon offers a similar
service in certain cities, dropping off packages
inside homes, garages or car trunks. But its
service does not deliver groceries.
“We will learn and then we will scale from there,”
Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO told the crowd of
Walmart workers and shareholders on Friday at
the University of Arkansas’ Bud Walton arena.
Two years ago, Walmart tested a similar service
in the Silicon Valley area but teamed up with
delivery startup Deliv and worked with August
Home, makers of smart locks and smart home
accessories. That test has since been stopped.
With Walmart’s new service, customers place a
grocery delivery order online and then select
InHome Delivery and a delivery day at checkout.
Walmart workers will use smart entry technology
and a proprietary wearable camera to access the
customer’s home. That allows shoppers to control
access into their home and give them the ability
to watch the delivery remotely.
Walmart said that the workers will go through
an extensive training program to prepare
them for things like how to select the freshest
groceries and how best to organize the
refrigerator. Workers need to be with the
company for at least one year. Walmart declined
to give specifics on the technology. It said that
ahead of the launch it will share the fee details
for the delivery service, which in addition to