Walmart Rolled Out InHome Delivery Service In Three Cities, Bringing Groceries Directly To Customers' Fridges
UPDATE: October 15, 2019 at 11:22 a.m.
Walmart's InHome delivery service has arrived. The service, first announced in June, is now live in three test cities: Pittsburgh; Kansas City, MO; and Vero Beach, FL. While you can read a full explanation of the service (and its many safety precautions) below, the one-sentence refresher is that it allows Walmart customers to order groceries that are then delivered straight to their fridge by Walmart employees. What a world.
It's being launched as a membership program for $19.95 a month (groceries not included); customers must also purchase a $49.95 smart lock kit, too, CNBC reports. The kit comes with free installation and a month of unlimited deliveries. It gives delivery people a one-time access code to enter a home during the specified delivery window.
If you don't live in one of the three test cities, fear not: "It’s a service we plan to grow and scale aggressively," Walmart's Senior Vice President of Membership and InHome Bart Stein said in an interview.
ORIGINAL POST: June 8, 2019 at 10:52 a.m.
In an announcement on Friday, June 7, Walmart president and CEO Marc Lore revealed that the retailer will be offering a new service everywhere by Fall 2020: They'll deliver groceries straight to your refrigerator. As in, a Walmart worker will come to your home, open your fridge, and place your just-purchased cartons of milk and bunches of grapes straight in there. The store already offers same day grocery pick-up or delivery, and this, they say, is their logical next step. You probably have a lot of questions, so let's get straight to how this whole thing works.
This new, and quite extra, delivery service is aptly called "InHome." According to some FAQs on the service website's landing page, a test launch will begin this fall in Pittsburgh; Kansas City, MO; and Vero Beach, FL, with expansion to even more cities in the works. You'll place a grocery order as you normally would and select InHome Delivery and a delivery date when you check out. The delivery people will be trained and vetted Walmart employees who've already worked at a local store for at least one year.
You can choose whether they enter your home through the front door or the garage; there will be a smart device that enables one-time access during the delivery window. In a (somewhat creepy) effort to make you feel secure about your home, the delivery employees will be equipped with a wearable camera, so you can watch the entire grocery drop-off from start to finish. (No word on whether or not you can communicate that they're putting your eggs on the wrong shelf while this is happening...)
Now about the cost: The groceries themselves will be priced the same as if you bought them in-store, but there will be a delivery fee. Walmart's remaining mum about it; their site states they'll announce more about cost this fall.
This is all, apparently, an effort for Walmart to bring you a sense of Fridgetopia...which is a word they invented meaning "the feeling your refrigerator gets when it’s stocked with everything you need." I mean, surely there are ways to achieve Fridgetopia without a stranger entering your home. Then again, it's 2019. Why would we buck a service that let's us be even lazier than we're already becoming?
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