Using Kroger Pickup Service

My friend Walter Riker looks at Kroger Grocery Pickup,

Our First Attempt at The Kroger Pickup Service - We Like What We Found.

This past weekend my wife and I used Kroger's Grocery Pickup service for the first time. 

To begin my wife had talked to several others who had used this service and so we decided we had to find out for ourselves just how it worked. 

This is where it does benefit you to be a Kroger Loyalty Card member. When we went to the Kroger website and signed in, we found a record of what we have purchased in the past. I cannot remember when we first joined the Kroger Loyalty Card program, however, we probably joined soon after it started (in the year 2000) - I like to do things like that.  ... "

Wal-Mart Tests Arc de Triomphe Model for Pickup

The 'hand-off to the customer' part of pickup continues to be examined.

Wal-mart expands test of giant automated grocery kiosk    by Tom Ryan in Retailwire with expert commentary.

After a test in Oklahoma City last summer, Walmart is opening a second grocery pickup kiosk at a location in Sherman, Texas that enables customer to pick up orders without having to interact with a store associate.

Under the set up:

- Orders are placed by customers who shop online or through their mobile browser at walmart.com/grocery;
- Walmart associates inside the store fill the orders;
- The orders are organized in bins and placed in the massive kiosk located in the parking lot, which is    equipped with refrigerators and freezers for perishable goods.
- Customers pull up to the kiosk building, walk up to an interface station and scan the barcode they received with their “order ready” e-mail. The kiosk retrieves the order, delivering it to the customer in a process that takes a minute or less.  .... "

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. ...  "

Wal-Mart Adding Pickup Towers

Makes sense,  See also comments in Retailwire.   The in-store location of the towers are criticized.

Walmart Is Adding Hundreds More Pickup Towers to Its Stores   By  Jonathan Vanian in Fortune.

Walmart is adding hundreds of more of its Pickup Towers at more of its brick-and-mortar stores all over the U.S.

After the retail giant sets up 500 more Pickup Towers at its U.S. stores, it will have a total of 700 of its over-sized delivery kiosks ready for use by the end of the year.

Walmart (WMT, +0.61%) first debuted the Pickup Towers last fall and pitched the 16-foot tall orange receptacles as an easier way for people to order toothpaste and other goods online, and then retrieve them from the self-serve machines.

The company said that since its debut, Walmart customers have placed over 500,000 orders. The kiosks large size makes them able to hold items as big as televisions, Walmart said.  .... " 

Amazon Pickup Service in Whole Foods

Witnessed the set up of this in a nearby Whole Foods today.  No additional crowding as yet.   Can see it as a specialized service offering, volume involved unclear.  Other uses when the infrastructure is operating?

Amazon/Whole Foods planning store pickup service from third-party retailers  by George Anderson in Retailwire.  with further expert comments:

Amazon.com wants to negate one advantage that rivals such as Walmart, Target, Kroger and others have — store pickup. The e-tailing giant is looking to offer a pickup service at Whole Foods’ stores that will not only include orders from the organic grocery chain, but also from a host of other retailers.

According to the reports, Amazon is seeking a finance manager that will help build a pickup business from the ground up. The job posting, which was first reported on by the Puget Sound Business Journal, said the person hired would be behind “the Whole Foods delivery and pick-up service on the ultra-fast Prime Now app and enable our Prime customers to shop from a set of marquee third-party retailers.”

What potentially makes the described service different from those offered by Walmart and others is that it would appear to offer pickup from online orders placed with Whole Foods, Amazon and perhaps others, as well.  ... "