Drive-through coffee, fast food and pharmacy takeout has been part of the automobile-centric culture of convenience for many years. Walmart is taking that one step further with curbside grocery pickup. Falcon’s Walmart on Meridian Market View is part of the test market and gradual roll out of this type of service for many of Walmart super centers across the country.ìWe tested in five markets initially, and are now excited to offer this faster, easier way to shop for groceries to more customers in additional markets,î said Anne Hatfield, Walmart spokeswoman. Denver was one of the original five markets. Colorado Springs area stores joined, along with about six more markets across the country.Walmart curbside grocery pickup allows shoppers to choose from almost 30,000 groceries, as well as consumable items like health and beauty items, paper products and cleaning supplies. ìThe service is free to customers, and the prices are the exact same as inside the store,î Hatfield said.Customers can shop online at http://walmart.com/grocery and choose a pickup time for either the same day or up to three weeks in advance. Customers park in designated spots on the north side of the Falcon Walmart and call a special phone line. Store employees will retrieve their items and bring them out to the car. For added safety, frozen and refrigerated items stay in their coolers in-store until the customer arrives.ìThe entire pickup process is finished in just a few minutes, and customers can be on with their day,î Hatfield said. ìWe consistently hear from moms who use the service that grocery shopping ñ- between loading kids, shopping, packing up the car, getting the kids back in their seats ñ- used to take hours, and itís now finished in minutes. They choose the best time that works for them ñ- it might be after dropping the kids off at school or on the way home from practice. And they donít even have to unbuckle anyoneís seat belt.îOnline ordering and curbside pickup has a few downsides, though. Common cost saving methods like couponing and Walmart’s popular Price Match system are not available. Also, more automation and customer self-service techniques tend to reduce the number of employee hours needed in the grocery business, said Kevin Schneider, secretary-treasurer for United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7 in Colorado. The union represents grocery workers at most major grocery chains, excluding Walmart.Self-checkout, scanners, online ordering, fast food kiosks and other apparent time savers for consumers are often motivated by cost savings for a company. ìSelf-checkout is a job ëdecreaser’ because now you have one person running what would have been four registers,î Schneider said. ìObviously, years ago, when they put in scanners rather than someone pricing each can of beans, that certainly decreased the number of hours. Now, they can be scanned rather than individually priced, but that’s been around for 30 years or more, and the grocery workforce survived that.îWalmart’s curbside pickup could increase total sales for the company because it can now compete directly with grocery delivery services such as Amazon Fresh in some markets. If online ordering with pickup proves successful and brings business back from the online options, it would allow the chain to increase the number of employees involved in the new service. ìWe have trained personal shoppers for this service; and, as the service continues to grow, we will determine if additional staffing is needed,î Hatfield said.ìI’ve noticed they have these services in other industries like Home Depot and Lowe’s,î Schneider said. ìSo, it’s not just the grocery business. We also still have to have people who stock the shelves, cut up the meat and put the produce out, so there’s no impact yet for automation with regard to those things.îThe Walmart service isn’t just for busy parents, although that is a target demographic. ìAnything that saves from the stress of taking children inside ñ- (i.e) goodbye in-store tantrums,î Hatfield said. Heavy items customers don’t want to lug around the store, cold medicines and chicken soup when they don’t feel up to going inside, or even saving time buying appetizers for football tailgates are some of the target customers Hatfield described.ìIt’s convenience at the click of a button,î Hatfield said. ìThis service will relieve our on-the-go shoppers who all have a million and one things to do and never enough time to do it.îPickup is available at the Falcon Walmart from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Customers can receive a 10 percent discount off their first order by using the code ìNEWORDERî during checkout.
