Walmart Grocery Pickup Review = the bomb dot com

Walmart Grocery Pickup Review

Walmart Grocery Delivery

Yep. Walmart Grocery Pickup is definitely the bomb dot com.  I have been waiting for this.  For years.  I constantly am searching the internet for this exact service.  I’m already buying pantry items in bulk using subscribe and save through amazon, but the lack of grocery items means they can’t be a one stop shop.  I tried food delivery services, but they still couldn’t quite fulfill everything I needed.  And then came this amazing and wonderful service (finally!)  First it came through Sam’s club – which I was about to join for the sole purpose of having online grocery ordering – but then Walmart in my area began the service.  oooo happy dance!  Wanna join the happy dance?  Sign up here.  This will give you (and me) $10 off your next order.  So yeah, click that.

I’ve used it twice so far, and my third order is in process.  It is awesome.  Because kids.  There are some kinks that definitely need to be worked out, but I think over time it will continue to improve and grow.

Pros:

• No extra cost
• No tipping allowed – I feel terrible about the fact that I never have cash so this made me feel much better about that
• It was incredibly easy to pickup
• Super friendly curbside service
• Much easier to keep grocery shopping costs within a budget

Cons:

• No coupons
• Can’t see nutrition labels and ingredients on the site
• Shopping experience isn’t as robust as it could be (not that it was bad)

Glorious Groceries

So what is the process like?

Order items online – order in advance because the pickup schedule fills up.  Select your pickup time (you have an hour window).  You can edit your order up until the night before you pick up.  Walmart calls you before your pickup time to make sure you are still coming (this has yet to happen for me – I called them before they called me).  You call them back 15 minutes before your arrival.  You drive to the store and follow the very well marked signs, and park at a very well labelled spot.  There is a sign with the phone number that says “Call me now” or something like that.  You call and your groceries are magically delivered and loaded into your car.  woah – it’s kinda like magic.  If there is anything they don’t have in stock, they bring a substitute or take it off your bill.  You are charged the lowest price for substitute items, and it is discussed with you prior to being charged to your card.

Walmart Online Experience

What could Walmart do differently to improve this process?

This is already an awesome service that I will continue using, but there is always room for improvement.  This service is brand new, and I foresee much growth in the future.  Here are my suggestions, which mainly relate to the online shopping experience:

• Take a note from Amazon and offer coupon clipping.  If a coupon is available on Amazon for an item all you have to do is click a “Clip Coupon” button when you add the item to your cart.
• Include a section for “rollback” items where you can search just among those items that are on sale.
• When browsing a particular item, take another note from Amazon and list similar items on the page – especially store brand items that may have a lower price.
• Add more pictures and a better description of the items, especially the nutrition labels and ingredient lists.  I found myself having to google items on other sites so I could see what it even was.
• For some reason Walmart linked me to my maiden name – although I have been married now for 4 years.  I couldn’t find a place to change my name online so the first pickup was a little confusing because they didn’t know who I was.  I haven’t tried the app yet, but that may make this process easier.
• Take a note from the food delivery services and add a recipe section.  When you select a recipe, it would automatically add the needed ingredients to your cart.
• Easier edit process – I like that you can edit your cart up until the night before you pick up the order, but every time I go to add an item I have to go through the entire order submission process again.  I think this actually messed up my order the last time I shopped – the worker told me they didn’t have my order in the manifest, so it took them awhile to find it.  They did find it, however, and had everything ready by the time I arrived.  The newly added items weren’t included (I also wasn’t charged for them so thats a plus).  When I looked back at the site, all the items from my entire order stilled showed up in my cart so I think there was something strange going on there.
• Better checks and balances system – I ended up with some bonus items I didn’t order and wasn’t charged for on one trip.  Nice for me, but not so nice for the person whose groceries are most likely hanging out in my fridge.
• It would also be neat to have the ability to add family members so they can also add items to the cart, which would then notify the primary user of the changes.  Eventually my boys will be teenagers, and while it would be nice for them to click and add an order of apples, I wouldn’t so much want them to be ordering 10 ribeyes without my knowledge.

This is my Walmart Grocery Pickup Review.  Again, you can sign up here.  This will give you (and me) $10 off your next order.