Walmart Now Delivers Groceries Right into Your Fridge
Walmart, the biggest grocery seller in the States, has recently launched InHome Delivery, its newest project aimed toward delivering groceries directly to customers' fridges.
Interestingly, the company goes back to the ‘roots’ by focusing on families instead of millennials that are usually the target of growing convenience economy. The company says to “give time back to families” by simplifying grocery shopping. Now they don’t even have to be home to accept a delivery.
For those worried about the safety issues, Walmart has prepared a detailed home entry policy. The deliverers wear body cameras clipped to their chests, allowing customers to watch live streams of deliveries being made. They enter the buildings equipped with smart locks — devices that can be controlled remotely to unlock a door only once during the delivery time window. The front door won’t open if the camera isn’t recording and customers receive a notification when the delivery is complete.
Walmart InHome marks the retailer’s latest attempt to adjust to changing shopping habits and solve the last-mile delivery problem for groceries. However, there are still some unaddressed issues that Walmart has to face, such as homes with pets or security systems as well as the idea that it’s an expensive, labor-intensive service to implement to attract a rather narrow slice of the market. Moreover, it requires the customers to actually be willing to give a stranger access to their homes.
Although available in Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Vero Beach, Walmart ‘Fridgetopia’ draws upon a possible future in which, for example, the smart fridge sends a supermarket information when it’s running out of something, simplifying the grocery shopping even more.
