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Wal-Mart Tests Online Grocery Delivery
fysdt writes "The world's biggest retailer had been rumored to be considering dipping its toe into online grocery delivery for the past few years. The 'Walmart To Go' test allows customers to visit Walmart.com to order groceries and consumables found in a Walmart store and have them delivered to their homes, the spokesman said. Products include fresh produce, meat and seafood, frozen, bakery, baby, over-the-counter pharmacy, household supplies and health and beauty items."
We've had that for at least 6 years now in New Zealand. Very useful, esp. when you get the discounted delivery offers. http://shop.countdown.co.nz/
... and of course Asda is the UK version of Walmart.
Has anyone actually set foot inside an Asda store in the past couple of years? I'm never sure if the big anonymous boxes are actually supermarkets, or just a delivery depot.
UK store Asda, while owned by Wal-Mart, had been using online shopping for years.
Martin Piper
Owner - ReplicaNet and RNLobby
Two major reasons for supermarkets charging a fee ...
1. The profit margin is presumably far lower than a food place.
2. The delivery people likely are regular hourly paid employees and aren't expected to be tipped; use company vehicles instead of their own.
Ron
One of the biggest downsides of ordering something from an online retailer is having to wait a variable amount of time to get your order (and having to pay an arm and a leg to get it fast). I've always thought that Wal-Mart was uniquely situated to offering online product ordering (not just for groceries) that gives you same day delivery for a relatively reasonable price. Their size and reach and efficient logistics puts them in a unique position to offer something like that, sort of a short range FedEx. I realize they already have in-store pickup, but I bet there would significant interest if they could offer full blown delivery at a reasonable price. Amazon isn't nearly large enough to develop this sort of thing, Wal-Mart is probably the only company that could. They order everything in massive quantities, they already replicate most of their merchandise across 50 states, and they're renowned for running a lean (and mean) company.
I mean, you can easily spend $5-10 to get something small delivered like a video game. Fuel may be expensive, but $5 of diesel can push a smaller delivery truck a long way. If you can order a video game in the morning, and have it delivered by 7:00 PM, even if they charge $5-10, I could see that being an easy call for a lot of people.
That just means take-out is a windfall for them.
Businesses that eat their costs don't stay businesses for long. I know this isn't the more pro-business forum on the Internet but really?
Indeed - I can order online from any of three supermarkets - Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys,
At the moment, I'm unable to drive, as health problems are making it difficult for me
to get my licence. This also means I'm on a severe budget.
Online delivery means I don't have to drag a couple of bags home on the bus every
day or three - it's great!
It also means that with the aid of my freezer, I can eat really quite cheaply indeed.
I base my orders around buy-one-get-one-free, or half-price offers, and am at the
moment shopping around monthly.
One of them even has an online API! http://www.techfortesco.com/forum/index.php?board=1.0
Being able to complete an order at leisure, and to reflect on each purchases value and
calories/... has greatly trimmed my grocery bill and waistline.
I'm in a small village - 6 miles from the nearest town of 40K - no 'fast food' places will deliver.
Will that be Jersey Giant, Rhode Island Red, or Leghorn?
Oh, and we tried fitting Barbie doll shorts, but they don't fit that well.
I could see this being useful but many items in a grocery store lack the fungible nature of factory goods. I want to see how the produce looks before I even decide fully on what produce I want, for most types of fresh fruit, fish,meat, vegetables etc
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When I moved out of my mother's basement I used the Albertson's delivery service until they shut it down. It was $14 per delivery, regardless of size, so I'd get all of my groceries for the month in one order.
It was a lot easier to avoid impulse buying and to plan out what was actually needed when I could place the order online. Albertson's would remember your previous order so it was easy to just adjust it slightly each month.
Has been working fine in Belgium for about 10 years or so. Several of the major stores offer this service for a small fee.
Walmart is not known for having quality food. Why is it so difficult to find a delivery service for quality food but so easy to find a delivery service from Stop and Shop or Walmart?
Trader Joe's would rather you come into the store. The food itself is only part of the experience shopping there, the demo program, employees that actually talk to you, and the generous return policy are some of the things that make Trader Joe's unique.
Disclaimer: I have worked there for 5 years, 3 in a management position, multiple stores. I can't speak for Whole Foods, but I would imagine they would also want customers to come into the store instead of just "getting the food".
Yes the do.... they wander around the store for you with a hand scanner with a screen that tells them what to pick and in the optimum order to pick it...
You can also give written instructions like 'I prefer bananas that are almost going black' if you really want... which they may or may not pay attention to.
Some of the fancier systems even let you enter the number from an old till receipt and let you easily choose items from it without having to search the online store four preferred brand of hair gel
[The Universe] has gone offline.
Indeed. Albertson's has an interesting idea going, they've got basically three tiers of service, do it yourself, pickup and delivery. You pay a bit to have the groceries waiting for you when you stop by, but the cost of it can be a deal if you're in a situation of having to pay for daycare for an additional hour.
Just drop http://peopleofwalmart.com/?feed=rss2 into your RSS client of choice and get the ambiance delivered online!
When I lived in NY City, I used Fresh Direct . The prices were just about the same as neighborhood supermarkets, there was much bigger variety ( many items were not available locally) and the meats were of the highest quality and cut exactly to my specifications.
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
they want their Webvan.com back
While Walmart is certainly late to the party on this one, the business implications are pretty big. They are already the world's largest retailer. They are already known for pushing out local businesses (which may be a good or bad thing depending on which point of view you are seeing). Delivery is one of the few ways that grocery stores have set themselves apart from Walmart. Is this a way for Walmart to strike out at their competition? Are they going to try to cut into competitors like Safeway and Albertson's who offer grocery delivery? My other slightly off-topic question is: why aren't there any fast food hamburger delivery chains? You can't throw a rock without hitting a pizza delivery place (or Chinese or Indian food), but there aren't any well-known burger joints that deliver (at least, not throughout the US in all locations).
GP like me, is British. We dont tip if we can help it :)
Only people I tip,
- barber shop,
- mechanic (to make them less likely to rip me off), and
- restaurant if there is no service charge.(cash direct to serving staff - no Credit Card tip)
Amazon, of all companies, has been doing that for a while in Seattle.
The McDonalds in Chengdu China has 24 hour delivery.
I saw the McDonalds delivery phone number prominently displayed in McDonalds in Thailand.
KFC also delivers in Asian countries.
COPD. I have a friend that worked the security at one of the Supercenters and asked him that very same question. He said because he has had to call out medical help for them in the past he has found many to be COPD, and the massive amounts of steroids they give them causing them to retain weight and fluids like mad.
If you look at a shot of Jerry Lewis from a few years ago when he was being pumped full of steroids? Same look. I have seen relatives with COPD and it really is a shitty disease. A lot of construction and factory workers end up with it after they retire, I wonder if it is all the plastic they breathe in.
As for TFA, while I hate walking into Wally World as much as the next guy (and I usually end up in the local Supercenter at least twice a week, between picking up items for my mom or giving a ride to an elderly customer who uses them for his prescriptions and shopping, a nice old guy who no longer owns a vehicle) I just don't see how it would work. I mean sure for canned goods one is as good as another, but who would want to get their produce, fruit, vegetables, and meats picked by somebody else who most likely is being paid shit and thus really doesn't care? gross.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Smoking is actually the most common cause, but working in a dirty industrial environment could also contribute. A lot of the Fatboi Skooter crowd are suffering from diseases relating to decades of food abuse and zero exercise though. Type 2 diabetes, congestive heart failure, etc. Many of them wound up that way at least in part because of chronic pain issues and greedy, incompetent doctors, as well as their own irresponsibility. From what I've seen the worst possible thing for anyone's health is to not be able to tolerate pain or delayed gratification. People who have impulse control problems and who can't stand pain always seem to be the ones who end up on a scooter. Personally, I have a great deal of chronic pain (rheumatoid arthritis plus an old spinal injury). I take it as a sign I'd better stay busy so it doesn't keep me down. When that's no longer sufficient, I guess it'll be time to start the pain meds.
Caveat Utilitor
I'd say the "food abuse" as you call it can squarely be laid at the politicians doorstep. The average for disability or social security in my area is $700 a month, that's it. if they are lucky maybe $50 in food stamps. Go into your average Walmart and see what the poor are putting into their carts. it is the "tube of hamburger" and potatoes, along with white bread and sodas. They simply can't afford nutritious food thanks to the government taking food energy AND housing out of the cost of living adjustments. Then add in the kickback and payoffs (excuse me subsidies) to the corn growers making HFCS so damned cheap they practically give the stuff away, and what do you expect?
As for pain, sadly that is another one you can lay at the feet of government, in that case the FBI and DEA. I have seen people die in agony simply because the doctor was too afraid to write anything stronger than a Tylenol (which BTW docs call "instant killer, just add alcohol" for how dangerous it is) thanks to the red scare we have in this country over drugs.
I too have arthritis along with a back injury (you'd be amazed what face planting at 65MPH + off a bike will do to a human body) but I was lucky enough to get a pain management specialist who wasn't afraid of the DEA. I'm been on opiate therapy for over 20 years now with NO major side effects. I live in a second floor apt, love to take long walks through town (when we aren't getting pounded like now) help my neighbors with their groceries, and run my little shop, all thanks to a doctor not being afraid to care for his patients. I'll admit I'm probably 60 pounds over, but that is thanks to video games and a GF that makes excellent southern cooking.
So while I am a big proponent of personal responsibility I am also not blind to what goes on around me. While most poor folks don't want to eat slop, when your choices are that are starve you take what you can get. Hell even the cigarettes I wonder how much is the pure chemical slop they let them pour into the things. My grandfather smoked nearly 2 packs a day and died of old age, but he rolled his own from tobacco he got at a co-op that was just leaves chopped up.
I think the next thing that will bite us in the ass will be GMOs and diet garbage, as you are seeing more and more allergies in people that have never had any before, and the diet garbage was rammed through by Rumsfeld in the early 80s without hardly any oversight (it was banned under Carter, and Rumsfeld had a BIG stake in Nutrasweet) and when you add in the plastics that are even detectable in the blood of newborns now, it is no wonder so many are in ill health. Most of the poor can only afford the most horrible processed slop imaginable, and with the economy tanking it'll only get worse.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
At ASDA they have company vans which are fuelled/maintained by the company with refrigeration units in the back; it's the same for all of the major supermarkets which do home delivery here, in the UK.
I'm inclined to agree with you on most of your points above, except one: I've been dirt poor before, and I ate less quantity of higher quality food. It isn't hard, really. Produce, brown rice, dried beans, even whole grain flours -- all very cheap compared to all but the cheapest convenience foods. The real trouble with the American diet today is that people are addicted to quantity, convenience, and refined carbs. I bake a loaf of whole grain bread twice a week, and it costs less than a loaf of cheap white bread and is far more nutritious. Chop up three potatoes, two carrots, and a parsnip and saute with garlic and green onions in a little butter, throw in whatever else you have in the fridge, season to taste, add a liter of water and simmer for a couple of hours -- dirt cheap, and better than any soup you'll find in a restaurant. How hard is that? We're talking 10-15 minutes of prep time and stirring every 20 minutes or so. People act like cooking is some lost, arcane knowledge, but just 40 years ago instant food and fast food wasn't even on most family's radar. The idea that "I can't cook, I have to work" is a terribly popular false dichotomy. I know these are stressful times, but cooking and caring for your health is not something many of us can afford to do without for long.
Thanks for sharing your pain med experience -- I've avoided them for years now, mostly because I always assumed that once I resort to opiates it's the beginning of the end for me. It's hard though, especially nights and mornings. Natural remedies like alfalfa tabs, glucosamine, CMO, and ginger tea have all helped a bit, but getting enough rest is still damned near impossible most nights. One of these days I may see a doctor again...
Caveat Utilitor