Walmart announced today that it plans to expand its Online Grocery Delivery service. Currently available in six markets, the company will expand the service to over 100 metro areas across the US this year. For Walmart’s Online Grocery Pickup service, currently available in 1,200 stores, will be brought to an additional 1,000 stores throughout 2018. The company says that with the planned expansion of the delivery service, that service would then be available to over 40 percent of US households.
“Ninety percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart store, and we serve more than 150 million customers a week, which gives us a unique opportunity to make every day a little easier for busy families,” Tom Ward, Walmart’s VP of digital operations, said in a statement. “Today, we’re expanding this promise by helping even more customers save time and money without leaving their homes.”
Over the last few years, Walmart and Amazon have been going at it, testing new ways to attract customers and help customers be more efficient. Walmart has tested automated grocery kiosk, while Amazon has explored drive-up and automated grocery stores. Amazon has expanded to offer free, two-hour delivery service with Whole Foods in some markets. Not only that, both companies are competing with each other by offering meal kits.
