story by Kim Souza
ksouza@thecitywire.com
The Rogers Planning Commission last week cleared the way for Wal-Mart Stores to build a grocery pickup site at its supercenter located at 4208 Pleasant Crossing Blvd. This will give the retailer two grocery pickup locations in Benton County in addition to Club Pickup at Sam’s Club in Bentonville.
Unlike the standalone facility in Bentonville, the planned Wal-Mart site links grocery order fulfillment directly to a supercenter, similar to what the retailer is already testing in Huntsville, Ala., Phoenix and Denver.
Wal-Mart executives said in June that they will continue to test grocery pickup options in various ways as customers demands change. Bentonville’s pickup format, the only one of its kind in the country, reports 90% of customers have rated the service 4 out of 5 stars.
In Denver, a curbside pickup in local stores in addition to home delivery have been tested for nearly two years and the company reports that 80% of its orders come from repeat customers.
In San Jose, a home delivery service reports that 75% of its customers choose Wal-Mart over competitors in San Jose where it’s been tested for two years. The retailer also recently unveiled delivery trucks that park in business centers in urban areas where grocery orders can be retrieved just before consumers head home from the office.
This second pickup point in Benton County is just one more way the retailer is testing the demand for this service, according to Wal-Mart spokesman John Forrest Ales. The plans approved by the city of Rogers call for two kiosks with overhangs and a loading area that is connected to the store. There are also a few covered parking spots in the plan where customers drive up and wait for loading after they have checked into the kiosk.
“Our customers value the convenience of free pick up for online orders in our stores.
We are adding to this local store in a way that gives us the option to test additional features and provide shoppers grocery convenience,” Ales said.
He did not provide a timeline for the building additions in Rogers and could not say when the pickup service for groceries would go live.
Wal-Mart executives told the media in June that they have the ability to speed up as demand dictates. It took them just 30 weeks to go from concept to opening on the stand-alone pickup grocery in Bentonville.
Wal-Mart competitor Amazon recently announced plans to construct grocery pickup facilities in Silicon Valley. Amazon, through a subsidiary, has signed paperwork for a retail location in Sunnyvale, Calif., and plans have already been approved for it to build an 11,600-square-foot warehouse with eight car stalls for pickups, according to multiple media sources.
This model described by Amazon resembles the pickup format run by Wal-Mart Stores in Bentonville which opened last fall. The difference being that shoppers can also enter a small store on the premise and shop without a placing an online order.