How AI and Automation Fuel Walmart’s Ultrafast Deliveries | WSJ Shipping Wars
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
- Walmart projects that by 2025, 65% of its stores will be serviced by automation. To compete against Amazon and Target, Walmart is investing in these automated fulfillment centers with its robotic Alphabot system and drone delivery.
WSJ explains how the country’s biggest retailer is leaning into a high-tech distribution strategy to keep pace in the fast e-commerce shipping race.
Chapters:
0:00 Walmart’s Alphabot
0:44 Process and strategy
5:41 Why fast delivery is important
6:40 Challenges and criticism
#Walmart #Ecommerce #WSJ
My grandma is 85, and can't drive any longer. Online grocery shopping and delivery is a Godsend for her. On every order, there's always an isshe, whether is a missing item or poor quality produce, even expired goods at times. Still, she can't live without and she'll gladly pay for Wal-Mart+ fees as long as she's alive.
I am so glad you posted this comment. As a strictly in store shopper, I get frustrated at Walmart employee's shopping for online orders, often blocking exactly what I need and feel like only online customers matter anymore. It will be so much easier for me to think of how online ordering is helping others who may not be able to shop in stores like your grandmother and not get so frustrated. Ty
I've been using Walmart online ordering for years now and never had a missing item or poor produce even once. Never. Amazing, impressive accuracy. The young people associates do a great job and I am very appreciative.
Thanks for commenting. We are doing some further reporting on this and would like to speak with you off camera. Please email kaitlyn.wang@wsj.com.
@@davidb2206Same I've never had that issue.
@@davidb2206 same they are better shoppers than me and they usually are new immigrants
Walmart has been delivering all my groceries to my home for the last two years and I'm very happy with their service.
They change items ones ordered before from "we can ship" to "pickup only". No rhyme or reason. Their online lists an item as "pickup/so many days shipped" but when one gets to the basket it's "pickup only"*. Details like that make the online experience compared to others maddening.
*"Out of stock" is another. That should be prominent while looking at items, not at the basket.
Me too as a legally blind person and cannot drive.
This video is more like a advertisement than a documentary.
another frustrated user who probably uses these services most often.
Walmart Rep: We're hearing feedback from our employees that they may be afraid of our new automation shift
Walmart Workers: I'm afraid of Walmart automating out my role as a retail employee
Walmart Rep: That's exactly right, your role is gone unless you already happen to know industrial equipment maintenance and upkeep.
Walmart employees are the biggest receivers of food bank.
You can't make real money working for Walmart unless you are in the top 10 percent.
I forgot about that. I wish Walmart would help those employees so they didn’t need a food bank.
Will there be a video on how traditional courier like UPS, DHL, FedEx will compete with these companies? With how Amazon operates, one day, they will open its logistic division to other users to generate revenue and directly compete with the traditional couriers.
I've seen reporting on how UPS and DHL are integrating robotics and other technologies into their processes, such as Boston Dynamics' Stretch put in DHL warehouses.
@@NowayJose14first I’ve heard of it but would like to see what they’ve done
Courier companies don't have food to sell. They can't compete with Walmart.
Amazon already does this
this is a great series ! thank you
OMG, with the lights telling the picker where to grab and place things, they have made a toddlers game of it.
The biggest hurtle that keeps my family from using walmarts delivery services is how they handle missing items. We will order $300 worth of groceries. There will be $100 worth of items that were unavailable with no substitute. That is no problem with us. We can get those items at another time or from another supplier. Our issue is that walmart still charges us for those missing items. They take weeks to return that $100. Maybe im in a different financial bracket than others but i cannot afford to have a third of my grocery budget tied up in walmarts pocket. Imagine purchasing a tv from amazon. Getting an email saying its out of stock. Then waiting weeks for a refund. This would be unacceptable for any other retailer. If they waited to charge my account until the items were actually accounted for. If they charged me 50% of the order at first and then the remainder after all items were accounted for. If they charged me the full amount at first and then updated the charge immediately to reflect what i would be actually recieveing. If they charged me the full amount at first and then processed an immediate return for the items that were missing takeing maybe a few days. All of these options would be so much better than having your money held hostage for weeks because walmarts inventory was inaccurate. If walmart fixes this then i will be a walmart plus member for life. I love the idea of never grocery again. Having all of my groceries magically appear on my doorstep each week. I really want this to work Walmart but you have to handle charging for missing items better. Do better walmart.
Hi, work for my local Walmart OPD, I’m not sure if you just didn’t receive the item, but from experience (also ordering delivery-) Walmart will credit your card more than what the order actually costs, to allow for that change in price for substitutions, and offer Shipping options if that item isn’t currently at your local store. Not all items can be shipped as it may not be in stock at the fulfillment center, but most can be shipped. On the opposite end of the spectrum. Yes, it may take a day or two to fully update in your bank account- but once the order is picked up/delivered, that credit usually goes away and your charge will be updated with the bank to an accurate price of items shipped/received. In the case of pure, missed items.. most times you can call Walmart support and they can get it sorted out. And that’s just my experience with ordering for myself and also working in this position. Not an official Head office representative, just an associate and fellow customer trying to help 😊
I don't shop at walmart anymore because I bump into 20 employees pushing those large bin carts during my visit and they block parts of the isle making it difficult to get items. I switched over to Kroger stores and Winco and Costco.
The *ONLY* reason USPS is still surviving it's because it's the default Government Delivery service. I'm serious. Amazon & Walmart's efficiency is probably 10x that of USPS.
A lot of Amazon packages go through USPS, to the point it affects their current duties.
This Walmart competing agaist Amazon is so tiring, when clearly they are both winning.
Translation, how Walmart is eliminating warehouse jobs.
Wamart are not your parents.
@@Maxime_K-G Walmart* is not your god.
@@Iron_Void Exactly, use your personal agency.
Walmart approach to automation is the future of grocery shopping and the best solution for high crime areas, giant warehouse size vending machines.
I have been using walmart more than amazon lately, sometimes I can get the order the same day
Walmart really needs to ramp up online inventory accuracy.
9 times out of 10 they are out of what they say they have, but have or try to sub for an item they said was out if stock.
Its gotten to the point i must turn off al substitution and roll this dice/gamble on if they have it in stock.
Target and Amazon while more expensive 9 times out of 10 really does have the item in stock, and if a sub occurs they are really close to what was requested (maybe a difference dize).
Walmarts must fix this or people will move elsewhere if thrre is an option
Associate here, that problem arises primarily because we still pick on the same sales floor as you would shop, sometimes it’s just not restocked and we send people to the backrooms to look for the item. But oftentimes we actually don’t have the items because what’s on the shelves is typically all we get off the trucks when they roll in. The only thing that really gets restocked is overstocked items that we store in the backrooms. Yes, it’s an issue that what’s talked in this video is trying to improve on, but also it’s kinda scary because most online departments have close to 30-50 associates. If it goes to automation a quarter of those associates won’t be needed anymore, despite what the actual company is saying. So exciting for the improvements for the customer and the job itself through tech, but also scary because for the same reason most Walmarts are close to solely self checkouts- as soon as automation comes in, those hiring and positions leave
I have shopped online with walmart for a decade or more. Actually I prefer walmart than amazon, as you know the easy return... no surprise.. some amazon return needs to print your own label or cost money... while Walmart, you can walk to next door customer service desk and return right there. i have only one complaint about walmart store pickup, prior to covid, you can do store pickup for far more items, including many from different stores to be shipped into your store or even 3rd party items. now they stopped that. probably due to the cost of shipping .,
I did shopping last year with them, there was 1 medium failed delivery out of several, this year I did several, only one was a success, it's getting worse this year
If they build their automation like they treat/pay their employees, it will all be falling apart in no time.
Is Walmart and Amazon failing? I am unaware of this. Looks like they're thriving and you have to shop there because they have buying power and can treat their employees like slaves if they wish because you can't and won't do anything about it.
素晴らしいです。walmartさんのおかげでスーパーは活性化しました。ありがとうございます。またこの辺りでも提携したりお店出して欲しいな。
Great process. I really like that we don’t have to go to stores anymore.
In South Africa we have 1 hour delivery, sometimes as low as 15min from order to delivery.
The 24/7 open walmarts stopped in 2020, and they are coming back in 2025.
Addendum to my earlier post. Wal-Mart, etc... it's the Quickness of the Delivery that's Most Important! The On-Line Web Site presence including, Ease of Use, Ease of Search, Quality of the item's Description, Alternative Options, Price, Accurate Inventory Control (Amazon has shown a little problem here), Ease of On-Line Navigation, Ease of Checkout, Ease of Shipment Progress, Verification of Delivery with Photographic Proof, Ease of Buying the Product Again, a Searchable History of When it Was Purchased in the Past, ... are the thing's that you need to focus on to Compete.
Are you listening?
ODP (Online Delivery & Pickup) is the fastest growing job at Walmart
just think if Kmart did this way back in the 1990's? Sears had a catalog but never did as good as these do at delivering as quickly. i miss Kmart and Sears.
Great to see the creativity and invest into the supply chain and delivery of goods. Though it feels like, it shows only half or a third of the issue. Where would we be as societies if we invested the same in the collection and recycling of the "leftovers" of these deliveries, such as, packaging, food waste etc? #circulareconomy #sustainability
Nice
The key to walmart i think is in emergency inventory more than daily cash cow and classification of priority is important otherwise walmart is just like safeway or kroger ...there are all kind of emergency : from personal , family , community , military , civil defense , police ect...and priority base on that with remedies and experience and tools and materials 3m ( men , materials , and missiin ....
dang like walmart is know beating amazon and ebay I am pretty impressed that they are know using drones for their delivery like amazon
Awsome ❤
U have to tip delivery driver for your grocery. So W+ not going to be adopted widely
cool
Surely walking 8 miles a day is the best part of the job.
No kidding ... U might as well get your steps...
LOL. This is more advertisement than actual journalism.
God bless walmart canada 🇨🇦 USA 🇺🇸 & the world 🌎
Not just for faster delivery, we can also thank Unions for the quick adoption for automation. No strikes. No disruptions. No increased labour costs past on to cusotmers....I love it.
And not being held hostage by the big labour unions.
Two years ago my neighbour had ordered a shipping container full of fencing. In the interim the long shore men went on strike! He was then told that they might be able to find his container for 5,000.00$. He paid and lo and behold they found his container and had it released.
Yeah, those pesky humans demand insane things like safe workplaces and fair pay. You can abuse robots all you want!
All this tech they have yet I just ordered from Walmart and my item is literally coming from China and I have to wait two weeks for it 🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻
they learnt this from JD
Grocery delivery within 30mins from the point of order is available for me (without delivery fees, subscription or surcharge for goods), that is awesome. 1 day grocery delivery is pointless for anyone not a housewife or retired/ill. This hole drone nonsense will not work in urban area, but for rural areas it will.
Wall street journal commercial advertisments for walmart are better than news.
WSJ 😃
A step into the future of delivery but still using single use plastic bags... interesting where the priorities are. it seems they may not be with the long-term benefits of the clients and their environment
Walmart is investing in cutting-edge technology, such as drone delivery and automated fulfillment centers, to compete with Amazon and Target. By 2025, 65% of Walmart's stores will be serviced by automation. Walmart's market fulfillment centers (MFCs) have the smallest footprint of the company's e-commerce fulfillment methods, and the Alphabot robot is key to speeding up delivery. The MFCs separate inventory from goods on the store floor, reducing congestion and ensuring machine-level accuracy in picking the right items at the right times for customers. Each of the 175 Alphabot robots can carry a single milk crate-size bin and retrieve customers' goods laterally, horizontally, and vertically. The robots bring items to a picking station, where associates are instructed which items to take and where to put them to speed up the picking and packing process. Once orders are complete, they can be picked up by customers in person, delivered by a Walmart driver, or in limited locations, dropped off by drone. Walmart has a built-in advantage over Target when it comes to faster delivery, with more than 4,600 stores across the US.
Yet it takes them 30 mins to bring out a single box to drive up.
And god forbid you ever need to walk in to customer service line
that isnt one of these stores. also hence why they are doing this the first place
true
Not for me
Should have played in the background of this video the song SIXTEEN TONS sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford (like South Park Did)
I don't shop at walmart stores anymore for several reasons. Among them is the sheer amount of employees picking orders with their giant rigs and they all have a bad attitude.
They hire fast food workers! That's the type of employee you typically get at Walmart.
Thanks for commenting. We are doing some further reporting on this and would like to speak with you off camera. Please email kaitlyn.wang@wsj.com.
Never had that issue. Sucks for you though sorry
So, will Walmart delivery to places where they closed down stores?
Competition is good for business.
If I need things that urgently I’ll just go into a shop and buy them next day or 2 day is fine with me
Walmart custom barcode use internal communications for corporation privacy
Coconut 🌴 1:53 ounces 😮 2:07 tablespoons 2:13 chocolate 2:23 lions cup and vanilla bean ice tea with coconut 🥥 and chocolate 🍫 with coconut cream and chocolate cake 🎂 and chocolate 3:04 3:05 3:05 3:06 3:06 3:07 3:07 3:07 3:08 3:08 3:08 3:09 3:09 3:09 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:11 3:11 3:11 alcoholic beverages 🇮🇳7906 5:09 lions 5:15 cid chocolate chip cookie mix and chocolate 5:36 coconut 🎊 5:48
Walmart's drive toward automation is encouraging. Being the #1 private employer in the USA isn't a good thing; it's a drain on the nation's limited productive capacity. People are valuable and shouldn't be used as machine substitutes.
People have been nothing more than machine substitutes since the industrial revolution.
If they had gail Lewis at every Walmart this wouldn’t be needed
👍👍👍
FEMA should be part of Wal-Mart is good for everyone and with automation help reduce lost of emergency inventory
Pay your workers a living wage, get rid of self checkout, listen to your workers and customers. Start with that first.
Okay, you just don't get it. Everyone should be required by government to be a debt slave?
But if that never starts here were you are? Are you taking a flight there?
I'm one of those weird people who goes to the store to get what i want. All this tech to get some milk is funny to me.
When did Blake Lively become WSJ reporter?😮
❤❤❤❤
We are getting to a point where we will only order groceries electronically and pick them up after paying. No walking through aisles. They are trying to combat stealing. 😂
Just wondering if everything is getting automated on the other hand population is increasing. some saturation point will come in future if we go way more beyond doing everything automated. Job market will collapse one day. Heavy layoff in future will be very normal.
I dont think this is going to expand
Simplicity favors regularity . Smaller is faster . Many grocerices can unite together and creat a better model by using one app in other countries . Wish you the best 😊😊the delivery also is going to cost more than having many groceries in neighborhood
Home working, home deliveries, equals sad world 😢
Quality content
good old conveyor belt system with the alienated workers who are the real robots, and we call it AI
7:20 isn't Walmart a public company?
She probaly meant that walmart is the largest non-goverment employer. Because the us goverment has 2.7 million civilian employees and walmart has 2.2 million in 2016
Who needs free list of grants to get their business off the ground must have an EIN or LLC and active bank to receive funds
DOES IT HELP TO PLACE YOUR MONTHLY GROCERY ORDERS A WEEK IN ADVANCE???
N yet they don’t have touchpay/ cardless
Having the humans in there is really an unsightly ineffficiency. They should automate the picking too. Its not that hard.
someday NPC's will realize being employed at 12/hr is better than being unemployed at 15/hr
Will they prevent also thief's?
If it's paid reporting or film 🎥 please mention at 1st. No workers, drivers or customers were interviewed
0:40 PP wars? 😏
Problem with high tech is it can't afford slow down or other problems of not selling products.
Machine break when we don't use it.
Cost of electricity and maintenance included ing cost of machine is too high, if people will not work than from where they will get money to buy products.
AI will steal job , automatic machine will steal job, what people will do, from they will get money.
It's a sickness of society.
Jay Bharat.
What is this guy talking about @7:39 as if the current minimum wage walmart workers are going to be promoted into the roles of maintaining and operating the robots in the future. Give me a break.
He's watched too many movies
Aldi has better prices.
Aldi is brilliant because it cut labor costs with very little automation. Its stores are incredibly efficient, both for a shopper and employees. It shows what is possible through ingenuity and very little capital.
Another huge retailer that is a lot quieter on the automation side is Costco, which is hugely successful nonetheless.
A lot of people prefer Aldi over Walmart!
I'd like to see 100% online ordering and a network of pickup lockers
Smarten up man.
I can’t believe they replaced Gail Lewis with robots
I worked for Ocado, who patented with Kroger and this system Walmart is using is a complete rip off 😂
Funny
I never liked Walmart and I still don't like Walmart!
Okay?
This is so depressing.
Imagine being that picker, being presented with items and have a colour code indicate where to put it, literal monkey work
Back to plastic bags? 😢
Walmart will always beat target the thing about target they are more expensive on there stuff
Associates = workers 😂
So all we need to do is to replace the human...
Walmart steady decreasing their delivery drivers pay in the mean time.
Love Walmart!!!
Maybe get a human to remove all the ridiculous scalpers that dominate their website. The man they got to talk about it is giving strong cult vibes
There is something’s at Walmart that are cheap for a reason so you really don’t want to buy computers at Walmart. There gaming computer is expensive and it’s not even built to the price. It’s cheap built but for high price. Shouldn’t it be the other way around.
welcome to dehumanization
Yes! Walmart is AI-Mart.
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65% will be unemployment 😂 got it
Praise God, so the human should be asking for more money now before there positions go 🚶♂️ out the door
walmart delivery is a clusterfk. they cant get the stuff out the door, wasting millions of hours of labor time of delivery drivers. its a joke. this will not help
they losing zillions on delivery. half the orders are a couple bags of stuff, a bag of chips or some soda.
I switched from amazon to walmart due to better /faster /services.