How Walmart’s Grocery Pickup & Delivery Makes Parents’ Lives Easier

The following was produced in partnership with Walmart Grocery Pickup & Delivery.

Family shopping can be a high-stress scavenger hunt where you sprint through crowded aisles in search of salad dressing, baby wipes, bell peppers, and dishwashing soap, praying that your kids keep it together long enough to make it to the car.

To non-parents, it sounds like a disaster movie. To the rest of us, it is the everyday hustle. That’s why parents make Walmart runs late at night and the crack of dawn bed. It’s the only time we can shop for groceries.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. The personal shopping revolution has arrived with Walmart Grocery Pickup & Delivery. A few minutes on Walmart’s Grocery app is all it takes to do the shopping now. Then, you drive the store, park, and have a Walmart associate load your car without you leaving the driver’s seat. In select locations, Walmart will deliver your groceries, right to your door. It’s just that easy.

One-Stop Shopping

Imagine it’s a busy afternoon for a hypothetical dad we’ll call Kyle. Kyle has two kids, 8-year-old Jaco and 5-year-old Grace. Kyle and his wife both work, so time is always in short supply. With his wife at the office late, Kyle is stuck parenting solo. The afternoon doesn’t start well. He gets to school late and finds that Jacob is worried about getting to soccer practice on time and Grace is in a mood.

Kyle isn’t thrilled with his kids but isn’t stressed. They are good kids generally and this behavior is, thankfully, rare. Besides, he has the time to parent them. The previous night, Kyle scheduled a grocery pickup with the Walmart Grocery app for between 3 PM and 4 PM. Just as he straps the kids in, he receives a notification on the app saying his order is ready. He checks in on the app to say he’s on his way. Jacob know they are going to be right on time and talks to Grace about being a team player and listening to Dad.

In the meantime, Walmart associates can track Kyle’s movement through the GPS function on the grocery app, to predict when he’ll arrive at the store.

About 15 minutes after checking in on the app, Kyle pulls into Walmart’s lot and heads to the parking spaces near the store reserved for Grocery Pickup parking. A few short minutes after he parks, a Walmart associate arrives with his order and load his groceries right into his trunk. Within minutes of arriving at the store, Kyle, Jacob, and Grace are en route to the soccer field without ever having to even unbuckle their seat belts.

When Even Pickup Is Too Much

Kyle’s journey continues: After hustling through his hectic solo parenting day last week, Kyle thinks the next Tuesday will feel like a breeze by comparison. Alas, that is not the case. While he doesn’t have to rush all over town, his wife and kids are laid up in bed with a nasty stomach bug, leaving him stuck in the house but still in need of medicine and cleaning supplies to care for his family.

Lucky for Kyle, his local Walmart was one of more than 600 stores offering delivery. He places a delivery order with the Walmart Grocery app and one of Walmart’s 18,000 personal shoppers gets to work picking up his items. Walmart trains each personal shoppers to pick the best produce, meat, and more for delivery customers. Once Kyle’s order was complete, the personal shopper arranges for Kyle’s order to be delivered direct to his door. Kyle lives in a gated housing development, which sometimes creates problems for deliveries. But with Walmart Grocery app’s driver instructions feature, Kyle can give the driver the gate code and have his delivery within minutes. Once Walmart sends a text notification saying the delivery is on the way, Kyle can track the driver’s progress and know when it’s coming. The groceries arrive with the family still in bed, giving Kyle the time he needed to do what’s most important — to take care of his family.

The Tech That Makes it Possible

The Walmart Grocery app makes the shopping miracle described above possible. Here’s how it works: Say you’re looking to grill a filet mignon with Montreal seasoning. Search for “filet and select one of the sirloins the app suggests or tap the “Sort & Filter” option to narrow your search by department or type.

With the right beef in the cart, let’s move on to seasoning. Type in Montreal and the Walmart Grocery app’s autocomplete suggests “Montreal seasoning,” “Montreal chicken seasoning,” “Montreal steak,” and “Montreal chicken.” Choose Montreal seasoning, 135 items come up. Either quickly scroll through options to tap on the right one or narrow the search with the “Sort & Filter” option to find a particular brand or size.

As you shop, you can teach the app what items you buy regularly. In other words, it only gets easier from here.

For one, the app remembers all your orders. When you stocked up on all the family favorites, from your daughter’s preferred brand of gummy snacks to your son’s almond butter brand of choice and your wife’s favorite bell peppers and organic kale. Now that you need them again, just call up the previous order and click “add all items to your cart.” Need something different this month? Just add that to the cart, too.

Furthermore, you can single out items as “Favorites.” Maybe there’s a certain frozen pizza your family loves but you always seem to screw up. Find it on the grocery app and tap the little heart icon next to it to save it as a “Favorite.” Now, every time you open the app, it’ll be waiting for you in your favorites. Forget to add one of those favorites to your order? You always have until 1 p.m. to update it — and still get same day pickup or delivery.

*Offer valid for first order only for Walmart Grocery Pickup, in available markets. Minimum order of $50. Offer not transferable, and void where prohibited by law. Does not apply to alcohol purchases. Customer responsible for all applicable taxes. Offer expires 01/31/19.