If the pandemic has taught us nothing else, Americans have apparently taken to the idea of home grocery deliveries.
At least that is what several major chains hope, including the latest, Walmart, which is counting on its new InHome delivery service that entered the South Florida market the past week.
Walmart follows Kroger, the largest supermarket company in the United States. Kroger had had no South Florida footprint, but that ended in May when the grocer started a delivery-only service from a hub in Opa-locka.
Walmart, which says the new delivery service will bring 196 jobs to the Miami area, is trying a somewhat novel approach with its InHome service. A delivery person will place your orders directly into your refrigerator, even if you aren’t home. That’s if you want such personal service and have a home entry system that allows access.
Delivery people in the house?
If the idea of letting delivery people into your house strikes you as, no way, Walmart wants you to know this: The company promises that its service is secure.
“Associates are W-2 employees. They are tenured, vetted and specially trained by Walmart for this service,” Walmart said in an email response to the Miami Herald. “Our team is small, so you’ll typically get the same one to two associates who you get to know and who get to know you. Think of it as the modern milkman.”
These Walmart workers use a one-time access code to unlock your door or garage, the company explains. A camera, worn on the associates’ vest, records the entire delivery. You can access the footage from an InHome app on your phone for up to a week after each delivery.
Walmart is taking a cue from Amazon which, for its Prime members, offers a service it calls Key In-Garage delivery that similarly gives access to delivery people who place your orders inside, rather than on, your porch or against your front door.
For this particular service to work, however, customers must have a smart garage door or smart lock on their homes or provide access through an existing keypad entry, Walmart said. For those who have the traditional key-and-tumbler set up on their doors, deliveries can be made the old-fashioned way: on porches and at doors.
If you’re concerned about COVID, especially as the new omicron subvariant strains spread, you can request that delivery people who enter your home wear masks. Walmart also says its delivery staffers will sanitize surfaces they touch.
Walmart will also deliver eligible non-grocery items, too.
Why go the delivery route?
The idea, Walmart says, is to increase convenience and flexibility to families.
“InHome is the perfect option for busy families who are increasingly looking for faster, more convenient ways to complete those everyday chores,” Whitney Pegden, vice president and general manager for Walmart InHome, said in a statement. “We promised at the start of the year to considerably scale InHome throughout the country and offering it in Miami is a big step forward in where we’re headed.”
Walmart also just expanded the service for Florida customers in Tampa and Orlando. New national cities getting the program included Dallas, Austin, San Jose and San Francisco.
In January, Walmart announced plans to expand access to InHome to 30 million U.S. households by the end of 2022. The company said it would hire more than 3,000 InHome associate delivery drivers who will get around town via all-electric delivery vans. Drivers can also pick up Walmart.com returns from customers’ homes.
How inhome works
InHome is now available as an optional add-on within Walmart+.
Sign up via inhome.walmart.com for a 30-day free trial. You can then order via Walmart.com or the Walmart app for items eligible for store delivery and select InHome as your preferred delivery option.
Customers in Miami who are already members of Walmart+’s $12.95 a month or $98 a year program can now add unlimited fee-free and tip-free InHome delivery for an extra $7 a month or $40 per year. That is $138 annually for both.
What the competition is doing
According to a Brick Meets Click survey reported by Food Navigator in May, online grocery sales declined by 3.8% in April 2022, compared to April 2021. This across-the-board drop included pickup — whether in-store, curbside or from store lockers, as well as delivery through first- and third-party providers such as Kroger, Instacart and Shipt.
The reason for the decline was ascribed to rising inflation.
But despite this percentage drop, Walmart and its competitors recognize that online grocery sales still top $8 billion annually.
— Lakeland-based Publix — Florida’s largest grocer — once tried its own online ordering and home delivery system, Publix Direct, in South Florida. But in 2003, Publix pulled the plug on the service after it failed to lure enough customers. But that doesn’t mean Publix ignores the home delivery market. Publix teams with third-party delivery company Instacart to offer home deliveries to its customers.
— Kroger’s new Opa-locka hub can deliver orders placed online to a 90-mile radius via its fleet of blue Kroger delivery trucks.
— Amazon owns Whole Foods Market so, naturally, Whole Foods is paired with Amazon Prime customers who may opt to get their groceries delivered.
— Winn-Dixie partners with Shipt, Uber Eats and Doordash to deliver its groceries to customers.
— Sedano’s also pairs with third-party delivery companies to gets its orders to customer doors.
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