Speaker 1: Trying out Walmart's giant new in store vending machines. What's
Speaker 1: going on. I'm rich Demiro. This is Rich on tech.
Speaker 1: Walmart is going to war against Amazon. They're testing out
Speaker 1: new technologies to make it easier for you to get
Speaker 1: your stuff no matter how you want to shop, whether
Speaker 1: it's in store, online, or a combination of both. Now,
Speaker 1: this is going to be especially crucial because Amazon is
Speaker 1: integrating their whole foods purchase into its operations more and more,
Speaker 1: using them as a place to pick up orders, drop
Speaker 1: off returns, sell Amazon Stuff service, grocery pickup and delivery hubs,
Speaker 1: and much more. Basically, these two companies have a lot
Speaker 1: at stake. So one of the things that Walmart is
Speaker 1: doing is something called a pickup tower. This is a
Speaker 1: sixteen foot tall giant vending machine that they're installing in
Speaker 1: stores nationwide. They tested the technology in two hundred stores.
Speaker 1: Apparently customers love them. Now they're expanding the technology to
Speaker 1: an additional five hundred stores by the end of the year. Now,
Speaker 1: they just install one in Lancaster, California. So I headed
Speaker 1: there to check it out, and it is massive. You
Speaker 1: can't miss it. It's right near the front door when
Speaker 1: you walk in. Here's Walmart's Tiffany Wilson.
Speaker 2: Pickup tower is essentially a sixteen foot tall vending machine
Speaker 2: that we have in our stores. You pick an item
Speaker 2: or a number of items on walmart dot com. You
Speaker 2: have millions of items to choose from, and when your
Speaker 2: item is available, you get an email notification with a
Speaker 2: bar code. You walk up and scan that bar code,
Speaker 2: and your item is vended to you. So it's a
Speaker 2: very easy, fast, convenient way to shop and pick up
Speaker 2: your items in store, so you can get in, get out,
Speaker 2: get what you need, and move on with your day.
Speaker 1: So basically, you order something online, you choose in store, pickup,
Speaker 1: and associate in the store grabs your item or items.
Speaker 1: They load it into the machine, and then you can
Speaker 1: come back and pick it up at your leisure. Apparently
Speaker 1: they hold your item for seven days. The machine is
Speaker 1: really fast at retrieving your items, so you don't need
Speaker 1: to talk to anyone or wait in any sort of
Speaker 1: line unless there's someone else picking up an item before you.
Speaker 1: Now I've done online pickup at Target and Best Buy,
Speaker 1: and basically the process is kind of the same, but
Speaker 1: minus the humans.
Speaker 2: Other processes include coming through the store and picking all
Speaker 2: those items yourself. You could also use pickup today, which
Speaker 2: involves going to a calendar and standing in line and
Speaker 2: picking up your item. So this is just another option,
Speaker 2: giving customers another option of shopping, whether they like to
Speaker 2: shop online, in store, or a combination of the two.
Speaker 2: It's just another fresh way to shop and it's easy,
Speaker 2: it's fast, and it's fun.
Speaker 1: Now you might be thinking, well, can't Amazon deliver to
Speaker 1: my house in an hour? Well, yeah, that's great if
Speaker 1: you live in an area that offers that I happen to,
Speaker 1: and yes, it is great. But I can see how
Speaker 1: this has appueled nationwide and in every single little town
Speaker 1: that Walmart operates a store in. You order something online
Speaker 1: at work and you pick it up on your way home.
Speaker 1: It's a fast and easy process.
Speaker 2: It's great for busy families. It's great for folks who
Speaker 2: don't have a lot of time in their day, don't
Speaker 2: have time to shop, so you let someone else essentially
Speaker 2: do the shopping for you, and all you have to
Speaker 2: do is just pick it up.
Speaker 1: There's no additional fee for the service. Now, if there
Speaker 1: was one, that would really be bad, because I don't
Speaker 1: think it would be very popular and as for time,
Speaker 1: Walmart's website says your online order should be ready for
Speaker 1: pick up within four hours. Now. I haven't tested the
Speaker 1: service from start to finish by placing a real online order,
Speaker 1: but I imagine that they work in a buffer here and
Speaker 1: often orders might be ready faster than that. They will
Speaker 1: text you or email you when your order's ready. But
Speaker 1: I can also see how this service will be slammed
Speaker 1: during the holidays. So what about that all important jword jobs.
Speaker 1: The pickup tower itself is automated, but you do need
Speaker 1: some folks to load it up.
Speaker 2: We've seen new jobs created because of the pickup towers,
Speaker 2: because of online grocery pickup and all the different new
Speaker 2: technologies that we have in store. So we're retraining our associates,
Speaker 2: we're bringing on new associates for these particular jobs. So
Speaker 2: we're saying really good growth.
Speaker 1: One more Walmart program I checked out online grocery ordering pickup.
Speaker 1: One more Walmart program I checked out is online grocery
Speaker 1: ordering pickup. You place a grocery order online, then you
Speaker 1: choose a pickup window time, Then you head to the store.
Speaker 1: You park an especially labeled spot, call a number, and
Speaker 1: wait for someone to come out and load your order
Speaker 1: into your car. Now, if you have kids in car seats,
Speaker 1: this can be really handy. They'll put everything in your
Speaker 1: car for you. And if you're wondering, can you trust
Speaker 1: someone to pick out your produce and meat, well, you
Speaker 1: might be surprised to find out that Walmart has already
Speaker 1: thought of that.
Speaker 2: I think it'll be really impressed with the skills that
Speaker 2: they have to pick out groceries for you. So they're
Speaker 2: trained for weeks. This is their specific role, their personal shoppers.
Speaker 2: And this is a job that we never had in
Speaker 2: the store before the existence of online grocery pickup. So yes,
Speaker 2: they're trained for several weeks. They know how to pick
Speaker 2: out the best tomato. They know how to look for
Speaker 2: beastings on the watermelon and how hollow it should be
Speaker 2: when you knock on it.
Speaker 1: And I did ask about tipping. While Amazon encourages you
Speaker 1: to tip your Prime Now and grocery delivery folks, Walmart
Speaker 1: told me that tips aren't just discouraged, but associates aren't
Speaker 1: allowed to accept them. By the way, these innovations seem
Speaker 1: to be working. Walmart just reported some of their best
Speaker 1: quarterly performance in a decade and online sales are up
Speaker 1: forty percent. Question is does Walmart need to get the
Speaker 1: whole food slash Amazon crowd to change their habits or
Speaker 1: just get more of their own customers to modify theirs.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. If you want a link
Speaker 1: to watch the video of the pickup tower in action,
Speaker 1: go to my website. It is richontech dot tv. I'm Richdemiro.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you real soon.