LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - Consumer habits are changing, and that has retailers trying to keep up.
In May, Walmart announced it expects to spend more than $30 million in Arkansas this year on store updates and innovation.
On June 28, the Walmart Supercenter at 2700 South Shackleford Rd. became the first in Little Rock – and eleventh in the state – to debut the company’s new Pickup Tower technology.
“The tower is to pretty much save time and be competitive,” Department Manager Lindsey Kraft said.
The 16-foot smart vending machine dispenses online orders 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Using the machine starts with placing an order on Walmart.com and selecting the “pick-up” option at checkout. Once items arrive at the store, an associate loads them into the machine. The customer can retrieve them using a barcode sent to them via email.
"Very simply put, you walk in, you have a code. You walk up to the machine, enter your information and it finds your packages. You just grab it out of the machine and walk out,” Store Manage Tony Benedetti said in a press release.
The Shackleford location also added an online grocery pickup this week. The service allows customers to order groceries online and select the best time to pick them up. A Walmart employee then loads the items into the customer’s car.
Kroger has a similar service, called ClickList, which it plans to take to the next level.
The supermarket and Nuro -- maker of the world's first fully unmanned road vehicle -- have plans to test unmanned grocery delivery. Kroger has not announced where that test is planned.
