Wal-Mart Expands Test of Pickup-only Store

Not a new thing.  In the 90s was pitched to look at what amounted to a highly efficient warehouse attached to a parking pickup drive-through.    Being set up, not by a major retailer, to test a similar concept.  You were informed when your shrink-wrapped order was ready.  See tag AutoCart below.

Walmart expands test of pickup-only grocery store concept   in Retailwire by Tom Ryan include Expert Comments.

Walmart is seeking approval to open a pickup-only grocery store in a former Dominick’s store in the suburbs of Chicago in spring 2019.

Standalone pickup facilities have been tested near Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville and with a location in Metairie, LA, but the proposed facility — called Walmart Pickup — appears significantly larger at 41,700-square-feet.

Shoppers will order groceries through Walmart’s website or mobile app and arrive at an assigned canopied bay in the parking lot at the specified time to pick up their purchases. The primary focus will be on groceries, although customers will be able to order other products and have them delivered to the location in Lincolnwood for free pickup.

Walmart predicts the number of pickup trips at this facility, which includes 24 stalls, will be about 180 per hour or 1,960 daily, according to Supermarket News. The retailer will also make home deliveries from the site — an estimated 30 per day. Thirty to 40 employees are expected to run the facility. ...  "

The Grocery Automat

An ATM-style, robotic grocery store could be coming 
Des Moines, Iowa, might be the first market to test a standalone grocery store that is a cross between "an ATM and a very large vending machine," using a robotic system called Oasis24Seven, reports Ashlee Kieler of Consumerist. Grocery stores are increasing using technology to monitor shopping as well as tackle in-store theft. ... " 

This idea has been tried before in a number of drive-through layouts.   Examined this in 2006/07 in the form of the AutoCart Supercenter.    Note the system described here is a very large vending machine rather than a supercenter store.    The footprint is far smaller.  The Robotics in either case can be done today.  Stocking the larger form would seem to be far easier.

Drive Through Supermarket

The drive through supermarket is a concept I have studied for some time.  Here Tesco tests the concept.  Baldock is in the county of Hertfordshire which is just North of London.  And more on this.  See also the autocart concept.

Tesco Trials Drive Through Supermarket

Long time readers of this blog will remember that we examined this topic sometime ago and talked to the group building a system in the US: Autocart. Now Tesco announces the test of the drive-through concept in the UK. I am researching the status of the idea in the US. Let me know if you have any information.

From Car Shopping: AutoCart

An area of interest for me has been the history and evolution of retail spaces and how these can be utilized by consumer package goods companies. Clarence Saunders of the Piggly Wiggly chain claims to have created the first self-service grocery chain in 1916. Since the 1940s there have been many versions of drive through convenience and pharmas, common today. A company that is trying to take this drive-through experience to a yet more convenient and consolidated level is Autocart, which I have posted about previously. Have also had a conversation with the founders. One particular aspect of this idea was to have a warehouse with many SKUs connected to the drive through, essentially providing a supercenter selection with drive through convenience. Press releases have indicated that their first center would be built in Albuquerque NM in 2006, and a release last year that mentioned Oklahoma City, but I have seen no indication that this came about. If you take a look at their current web site it appears that they are creating a number of variations of the basic idea. A recent paper included in their site says that a Midwestern US retailer will be testing their AutoTram concept in early 2008. Concept is intriguing. Still waiting for the experience of an actual implementation.

Stay-in-car shopping : Autocart

Stay-in-car shopping | www.azstarnet.com �

I found this during some research on the drive-through superstore concept, note it mentions IFTF.

AutoCart revs up drive-through supercenter

I wrote about this before in Future Now ... AutoCart revs up drive-through supercenter. Still looking for more details, would appreciate anything people can send along.