New free services at Target and Walmart

Shopping on Amazon may be convenient, but Target and Walmart are still very much in the retail horse race, offering trendy new services in stores. Target is expanding Drive Up, a free service that brings online orders of merchandise (not groceries, unfortunately) out to customers’ cars. The service, introduced at Minneapolis stores in March, is now available in nearly 100 Florida stores, the company announced Tuesday.

Customers place orders via the free Target app and select the “drive up” option, if it’s offered, during checkout. At the store, customers pull into specially designated parking spaces near entrances and employees deliver orders to cars within two minutes of arrival, the company said.

Target said it expects to offer the new service in 1,000 stores by year’s end. Target is using the new, convenient service as part of a multifaceted strategy to fight Amazon’s and Walmart’s quest for total retail domination. Target began delivery of groceries and other products in South Florida through its acquisition of Shipt in February. For $99 a year, members receive unlimited free grocery deliveries within an hour on orders over $35. There is a $7 delivery fee for orders under $35.

Like Amazon and Walmart, Target.com also now offers free two-day shipping on hundreds of thousands of items on Target.com for orders of $35 or when paying with a REDcard. No membership or annual fee is required, unlike Amazon Prime, which costs $99 a year.

Meanwhile, Walmart is now delivering groceries via Postmates in North Carolina and five other markets (not South Florida yet) with plans to rapidly expand the service to 40 percent of households by year’s end, the company announced earlier this month. Customers order online at Walmart.com/grocery or on the free Walmart Grocery app and select a delivery time at checkout. Orders are being picked and packed by Walmart’s 18,000 personal shoppers and a member of the Postmates fleet delivers to doorsteps. The cost is $9.95 with a $30 minimum order.

As I’ve reported, the world’s largest retailer also offers free online grocery pickup service in 1,200 stores with 1,000 more to be added this year. Target no doubt will be adding grocery pickup as part of its Drive Up service to compete with Walmart.

Walmart also is testing a program called Check Out With Me in more than 350 stores. Employees in the Lawn & Garden center will be outfitted with cellular devices and Bluetooth printers to check out customers on the spot. If you’ve ever been to Apple stores, it’s the same idea. Customers won’t need to haul

heavy bags of mulch, dirt and plants to checkout. Just pay and leave.

Amazon has changes on the way, too. The Seattle-basd internet retailer says it’s “cooking up something new” for Whole Foods Market customers and that it “will be retiring” the grocer’s digital coupons and WholeFoodsMarket.com accounts on May 2, according to an email to customers. Customer won’t be able to access saved recipes or shopping lists after that date.

Presumably, coupons and other features will be rolled into Amazon Prime as the mission to integrate the two companies continues. Amazon acquired the grocer for $13.7 billion last year. A possible discount for Prime members of up to 10 percent could be in the works, too, after a Whole Foods store in Texas briefly displayed marketing materials, according a report by CNBC.

In February, Amazon began offering 5 percent back in rewards for purchases at Whole Foods Market with the Amazon Prime Reward Visa credit card. It also continues to expand free two-hour delivery of natural and organic products from Whole Foods Market through Prime Now.

Domino’s new ‘hotspots’

Domino’s now delivers to park benches, sports fields and even at the beach.

The company will bring the goods to more than 150,000 predetermined “hotspots” where drivers hand off orders to hungry customers, according to a news release.

Orders are placed online or through the company’s mobile app and paid for and delivered with the help of GPS location services. Before checking out, customers can leave instructions to help the driver find them, the company said. Customers then receive text messages with updates on the progress of orders and where to meet to get the food.

“We listened to customers and their need for pizza delivery to locations without a traditional address,” Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA, said in the release. “We know that delivery is all about convenience, and Domino’s Hotspots are an innovation that is all about flexible delivery options for customers.”

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company has more than 14,800 stores in over 85 markets. It derived more than 60 percent of its U.S. sales through digital channels, including Google Home, Facebook Messenger, Apple Watch, Amazon Echo, Twitter and text message using a pizza emoji, the company said. Get more information at Dominos.com/HotSpots.