
Walmart Grocery is now offering a $98 per year ‘Delivery Unlimited’ subscription - prostoalex
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/14/walmart-grocery-is-now-offering-a-98-per-year-delivery-unlimited-subscription/
======
blhack
Retailers are chasing amazon on variety, and delivery, but I actually think
the next evolution is curation.

The loyalty my wife and I have to Costco (which, btw also has an incredibly
cheap deliver option which is NOT a subscription) is pretty incredible. It’s
gotten to the point where we trust the things they’re selling just by virtue
of the fact that Costco sells them.

Amazon, Walmart, etc all seems to be sprinting as fast as they can in the
other direction. Their online stores for instance, feature an enormous variety
of products, most of which aren’t actually in stock at the storefronts, which
are a crapshoot of quality.

I personally hope the future of retail looks a lot more like Costco than
amazon and wal Mart.

~~~
jimmaswell
This website is the only place I ever hear complaints about supposed
counterfeits or excessive low quality products on Amazon. I feel like it's not
as much of a real issue as it's made out to be, especially to the average
person. Personally I still use Amazon regularly and have no real complaints.

~~~
meowface
I use Amazon frequently and haven't been aware of any quality issues with
anything I've purchased (though who knows for sure what their quality is), but
there's definitely been an uptick in sketchy looking product alternatives made
by unknown pop-up companies when you search for electronics and such. It kind
of feels like viewing a modern Google search results page, where at least half
the items are the equivalent of search engine-gaming blogspam. It wouldn't
shock me if a lot of safety issues and hazardous materials are waiting to be
uncovered in a lot of those products.

~~~
TylerE
I think a lot of that isn't really knockoffs per say it's just a million fly-
by-night drop shipping companies rebranding the same stuff.

------
mlacks
I just want to comment that Wal-Mart isn’t “playing catch-up” to Amazon, but
simply plugging up holes in their business plan.

Critics of Wal-Mart’s online competency seem to forget that not only is Wal-
Mart the largest company by revenue - on the planet - but Amazon doesn’t even
crack the top 20.

As far a business goes - an organization to provide value exchange - they are
doing better than almost any other business in the world, depending on the
metric you’re measuring with.

[0] [http://fortune.com/global500/](http://fortune.com/global500/)

~~~
oblib
Wal-Mart is not the same as it was 20 years ago. They didn't do "groceries"
back then and they tended to source some products from local businesses when
possible. They had a local feel and devoted customer base. Not so much now
though.

The "Super Wal-Mart" we have now is pretty boring, makes you walk across that
entire giant store to get a quart of oil and a bag of chips, and then lets you
choose between "Self-Checkout" or a really long line at the one or two cash
registers they have open.

In places where an Aldi's has opened up they've put a serious dent in those
Super Wal-Marts, and Costco just blows them away. Wal-Mart will have to do a
lot more very soon to maintain same store sales numbers as those two
competitors fill in the gaps.

~~~
pythonaut_16
Your second point is pretty disingenuous. Of course you have to walk across
the entire store to get a quart of oil and a bag of chips. It's literally
impossible to carry a variety of items in inventory without some items, mostly
unrelated, being located far apart.

~~~
oblib
No, it's a valid observation. The new "Super Wal-Mart" is huge and has a ton
of stuff I don't buy very often.

We still have the original store in town, and many folks here prefer it. My
wife and most her friends are among them, and I've given the reasons why here
but change the products to what I buy. One of their most common complaints is
they have to walk all the way to the back of the store to get a gallon of
milk.

That is one of the reasons those small "Dollar Stores" are being built
everywhere around us. We have one now that's just a couple miles away and
that's meant a lot less trips to town to the Wal-Marts for all of us. They
also have real live cashiers working there.

------
rgbrenner
Amazon has setup their business to compete against Walmart... that's the low-
margin retail market. Low margin because they've both chosen low prices as
their usp. Along with low margin comes all of the things we associate with
both retailers: poor wages, poor working conditions, etc.

At no point was Costco a direct Walmart competitor.. when they were founded,
their innovation was creating the first retail warehouse club.

Amazon and Walmart look so similar because they fully intend to compete with
each other. Costco is just a different concept, and really an entirely
different way to run a business than walmart and amazon. Considering both have
exceeded Costco's revenues, it's very unlikely they would alter course to
compete against the smaller Costco (although I also doubt they could make such
a huge shift in strategy).

~~~
rgbrenner
ok weird.. came back to this post.. and they separated from the post I replied
to.

To be clear, this is a reply to:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20198779](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20198779)

I think if HN is going to separate my reply from its parent, they should
explain why. This reply makes more sense with context.

~~~
root_axis
It's also possible you just made a mistake.

~~~
rgbrenner
no, it's not possible. I always re-read my post after clicking submit. It was
a reply.

~~~
loco5niner
I don't make mistakes ether.

~~~
rgbrenner
Don’t be a troll .. that’s not what I said. I hit back in my browser and the
post was a reply. I’ve been on this site for 7 years I know how to use a
browser and reply to a comment.

~~~
root_axis
> _that’s not what I said_

Well, you actually _did_ say that. Your exact words were "no, it's not
possible", so it's kind of strange for you to claim that's not what you said.

> _I’ve been on this site for 7 years I know how to use a browser and reply to
> a comment._

People who have been using browsers for a long time can still make mistakes,
it doesn't mean they don't know how to use the browser, it just means that
they're a human.

~~~
rgbrenner
No, it's not possible I made a mistake in this case. Here's a screenshot:
[https://imgur.com/a/uUt7qKi](https://imgur.com/a/uUt7qKi) It was in my mobile
browser when I got up this morning.

~~~
root_axis
Ok. I won't debate your screenshot since this is totally off topic at this
point.

------
Dylan16807
But does this service give you the exact same prices you get in the store,
including sales and coupons? Because that often seems to be a hidden cost.

~~~
reaperducer
Good question. The reason I don't use the Kroger or Safeway online services is
because the prices are severely marked up compared to my local stores.

And I don't use Target's online shopping because it's freaking useless.
Sandwich bread? Sorry, not available for pick-up in the stores near me. Sugar?
Same story. Flour? Nope. What's the point of all those signs in Target's
grocery section telling me I can order my food online?

I miss Peapod. :(

------
ars
I used to order from Walmart a lot, and then they raised prices online vs. in
the store.

Now I don't trust them, and hardly shop their website. Their store is far
enough away that I only go monthly or less.

They need to regain my trust and have the same prices online and in the store,
or at least make it visible so I can decide if the "shipping" fee is worth it
to me.

~~~
robertAngst
What items did it seem like they raised it?

------
AuthorizedCust
This is scammy. Walmart allows delivery drivers to collect tips, which means
that $98/year is only an arbitrary portion of the cost of this service.
Eliminate the tip to give me transparent pricing, and you may win me over.

------
josep2
We have a subscription (For about 3 months) and it's been a great value for
us. We order things like bread, some staples for our 2-year-old and some other
packaged goods for about $40 a week. Walmart uses DoorDash for delivery in our
area and we can usually place an order and have it delivered 2-3 hours later.

One negative aspect of using the service is Walmart seems to have a hard time
knowing what will be in stock even a few hours from order. Every order we've
done (around 12) has had a missing item due to it being out of stock.

~~~
keanebean86
I worked at 3 walmarts in 2 states over about 7 years. They all had issues
with inventory.

Corporate has been trying to fix the issue for years with different
technology. They bought into RFID tech pretty heavily but it didn't really
work as advertised. It seems the plan was to interrogate tags as they come off
the truck since they had readers on both sides of the loading dock. Even with
my limited experience with RFIDs I can see that not working. Passive RFIDs are
only reliable when you have line of sight. Active and semi-passive tags work
far better but they're way more expensive. When unloading the truck you need
to deal with box orientation, un-loader's watery bodies, and equipment. Now
the readers look abandoned and in disrepair.

Later they re-purposed the Layaway system to assign cases/items to locations
in the back room. It was an amazing idea but it's fundamentally flawed in a
few ways.

    
    
      1. Adding and removing items is too slow and unreliable. The portable terminals lose connection or take seconds to process scans. Those seconds add up when scanning hundreds of boxes. 
      2. Each item/case requires a label that takes time to print
      3. Large quantities of unsold special items can fill precious backroom space. This requires hunting for holes to add new, normal items. 
      4. Lack of time results in corners being cut. Items are not scanned or they fall behind stacks of other boxes and are lost. 
    

Add in theft and items being left in the wrong place by customers and it's not
hard to have a seriously messed up inventory.

What I would like to see is a store where all merchandise is kept in the
stockroom. Customers scan bar-codes on the shelf or on displays. A team in the
back picks the items from inventory and meets the customer at the door after
payment is made. Of course that would require a major change to story layouts,
staffing, and customer expectations so I doubt it will ever happen.

Edit: spelling errors

~~~
gonesilent
Sears had a line of stores back in the early 90's like that. Everything in the
store was a display and you took around a little clipboard. Name escapes me,
maybe just a so-cal thing.

~~~
currymj
The idea dates back even further than that, to the failed but fascinating
Keedoozle, the second venture attempted by Clarence Saunders, founder of
Piggly Wiggly, after his financial ruin attempting to corner the market in his
own stock.

You'd go around the store, your selections would be punched into a card, and
at the front your food would be automatically delivered via conveyor belt.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keedoozle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keedoozle)

------
educationdata
I enjoy the time walking inside the Grocery store (my neighborhood Walmart),
looking around and picking stuff. I feel it's part of good life. Am I an
outlier?

~~~
jdhn
I don't mind it, the biggest issue for me is finding parking as I always seem
to hit crowds of people whenever I go. I also like the idea of going around
and picking out specific fresh produce. I like looking at the apples and
bananas before I put them into my cart, as I trust my own QC over somebody
elses.

------
wincy
I live right down the street from Walmart so we wouldn’t get this, but using
the Walmart Grocery app and picking up our order has been great. About six
months ago a recruiter asked me if I was interested in moving to Bentonville.
It’s been interesting to watch the app improve since then, they’re really
putting a push on making it work well. It’s great because this has made us buy
smaller orders so we waste less food, whereas before we’d make a semiweekly
Costco run and most things would spoil.

~~~
opportune
That's interesting, I figure all of Walmart Labs was located in San Bruno. Or
was this a non-tech position? If the pay is comparable to San Bruno and you
can tolerate living in... Arkansas... I bet that money would go pretty far

~~~
reaperducer
_you can tolerate living in... Arkansas_

Based on the downvotes you're getting, I suspect there are plenty of HN'ers
who would rather have a good life in Arkansas than tolerate living in San
Bruno.

~~~
diminoten
I live here (Rogers, AR), it's fine. May was rough though, with the crazy
weather. The area is growing substantially. Heck, we're getting a Top Golf!

I love the low cost of living; coming from D.C. and its crazy housing
situation, it's a breath of fresh air (figuratively and literally).

------
nkurz
Here's a map of locations where Walmart offers grocery delivery:
[https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/delivery/](https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/delivery/)

And where they offer online ordering and free pickup:
[https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/pickup/](https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/pickup/)

~~~
mlevental
how do you figure out the radius of delivery?

~~~
reaperducer
You can punch in your ZIP code and it will let you know what stores deliver to
you. I did this a couple of weeks ago and found out I'm not in any Wal-Mart
zone.

But the Whole Foods that's farther away? Amazon's on it like Oprah on a baked
ham.

------
weq
Is anyone else worried about this race to the bottom? What the price our earth
is paying for these services? And our communities? We talk about getting a
fair go, yet actively idolise big-tech which is obliterating the low income
jobs and widing the class divide with marketing tactics.

The only thing i hear people talking about in this thread is _their_ bottom
line. Not a single person considering the social and evironmental implications
of their choices?

Seems like tech is creating a bigger disconnect between reality and everyday
lives. The corner shop run by a local family has morphed into some sick
youtube family dream where toddlers unwrap consumables and hundreds of
thousands of people become envious, pickup their phone, click some buttons,
and are soon greated by a person at the door delivering them a token that
makes them feel more apart of society.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle)

~~~
jimmaswell
Either you drive to Wal Mart and pick the stuff up, or an employee delivers
them to you, potentially making multiple deliveries in the same trip.
Replacing pickup with delivery is carbon neutral at worst, assuming your
vehicles are equally efficient. Likely the delivery vehicle was chosen for
efficiency so it's better anyway.

~~~
megaremote
These are not the only two options.

~~~
NotSammyHagar
I don't see another option (grow my own food, I live in a city?), can you
elaborate?

------
J_cst
Just yesterday I realized that also in my small city (in Italy, about 100k
people on East coast) it's available an online service by which you can order
your groceries online on a number of local stores and get it delivered at your
home/office on a specific time for 5eur. For 2 of those n local stores you are
"guaranteed' to pay the same prices as in store. They also offer a
subscription service for 10eur/ month which allows you unlimited deliveries
for any purchase whose value is greater than 30eur. The deliveries are taken
care by "shoppers". One can become a "shopper" by signing up on their website.
No mention of stores fidelity cards on their website. I have not yet tried it,
but sounds convenient.

------
totaldude87
The main problem i have with online grocery is this.

If i want some mushroom , pretty sure ill spend 15 seconds to pick up the
"fresh looking" one, while in online delivery someone gets to pick that out
and its a coin flip on whether it would be fresh looking or not.

Also, wouldn't the grocers want to clear out the first expiring products first
(milk, spinach etc etc) than give out fresh ones .. How can we be sure on
whats being delivered to us is fresh looking at least?

Note : I've been pressing up the notion of "Fresh looking " vs "Fresh produce"
as I mainly buy with how it looks to my eyes and i have no idea how to
validate if a vegetable is actually fresh..

------
AuthorizedCust
Unless they eliminate the expectation to tip, there's still a significant per-
delivery fee.

------
Tempest1981
I needed a pair of Lithium AA batteries. I saw them in stock at Walmart.com
(available for pickup today), so instead, I dropped by the store to grab them.

I checked all of the battery displays, but couldn't find them. (I found
Lithium AAA.) So I ordered them online.

The next day, I got an email: "pickup order delayed, don't go to the store
yet." A few days later, same thing. A few days later, "our apologies, your
order has been canceled".

I've had this issue 2 out of 5 times. Not great inventory control.

~~~
weiming
Roughly mirrors my experience trying online ordering from Safeway. Figured
they haven't yet automated processes in the way Amazon has.

------
npip99
Why is giving a "Delivery Unlimited" option considered to by "Taking on Target
Shipt, Amazon Prime, etc"? It's just a reorganization of what you pay, since
you're going to pay for those shipping costs one way or another. And it's
going to be through increased prices of the items in their store. They didn't
actually do anything at all. How do people fall for this?

------
Tsubasachan
In a country were you're never more than 1500 metres away from a supermarket I
always find grocery delivery extremely lazy. Retail will die and I won't shed
a tear but we don't need everything delivered...

~~~
lammalamma25
To each their own. Grocery delivery gives me 1-1.5 hours back on my weekend
that I value quite a bit. Maybe not $10 a delivery but quite a bit.

------
robertAngst
I am close to the phase where fast food is slower than homecooked food.

Between Ramen and Breakfast Burritos, I can cook faster than a drive to Taco
Bell.

I cannot see how groceries can be further optimized. More selection?

