Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Walmart to offer ‘unlimited’ grocery delivery from 1,400 stores
Walmart will begin delivering fresh food to your doorstep this fall.
The new Delivery Unlimited membership program will bring Walmart’s low-priced foods from 1,400 stores to customers for $98 a year or $12.95 per month, the company announced on Thursday. The service will expand to more than 1,600 stores, covering 50 percent of the country, by the end of the year.
Walmart is expanding the program, in which customers order online and schedule delivery times, after successfully testing it in Miami, Tampa, Houston and Salt Lake City earlier this year.
Customers can try the service for free where it is offered with a 15-day trial at Walmart.com/grocery. Prices for items delivered are the same in stores, Walmart said. The new delivery option joins the company’s free grocery pickup service offered at nearly 3,000 stores “We’ve been investing in our online grocery business by quickly expanding our Grocery Pickup and Delivery services. Delivery Unlimited is the next step in that journey,” Tom Ward, the company’s senior vice president of digital operations, said in a news release. “By pairing our size and scale and these services we’re making Walmart the easiest place to shop. Combine that with the value we can provide, our customers can’t lose.”
The company employs more than 45,000 personal shoppers.
The move allows Walmart to compete with Target’s Shipt ($99 a year) and Amazon Prime delivery services ($119 a year), which offers same-day delivery on fresh food and includes goods from Whole Foods Market. Instacart also delivers from Publix and other retailers for $99 a year.