Scott Goss

The News Journal

Grocery shopping at Wal-Mart just got a little easier – at least in Middletown.

The world's largest retailer is now offering its online grocery shopping/pickup service at the Supercenter off U.S. 301.

The free service allows customers to place grocery orders on the company's website and then pick them up at the store without ever having to leave their vehicles. The minimum purchase required for the service is $30.

“Our customers have told us that grocery pickup is a game-changer," Bubba Bohra, Wal-Mart's local market manager, said in a release. "They are now able to complete their grocery shopping in a matter of minutes – between errands or on their way home from an after-school activity – without even unbuckling their seat belts.”

To help promote the new service, Wal-Mart is offering a $10 voucher to customers who can convince a friend to use the service.

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First launched in 2014, Wal-Mart gradually has been adding the service across its 5,000 U.S. stores.

The Middletown Supercenter is the first Delaware location – and one of only six in the Greater Philadelphia region – to also offer online grocery pickup, along with three stores in Maryland. Wal-Mart has said it plans to add the feature at 500 to 600 new locations this year, although it remains to be seen when its five other Supercenters in the First State will follow suit.

The rollout is among several online initiatives the massive chain has added in recent years as it fights to maintain its edge over brick-and-mortar competitors and the still-growing e-commerce boom that is laying waste to other segments of the retail industry.

Walmart.com, for instance, launched free, two-day shipping on 2 million items and lowered its minimum-order price to $35 in January. The move was seen as an effort to keep pace with Amazon, which offers the same deal with its $99-a-year Prime membership program. Amazon is by far the world's largest online retailer by revenue, while Wal-Mart recently moved into second place ahead of eBay.

Wal-Mart's pickup service offers an even faster turnaround for time-strapped shoppers.

Customers who register on the company's website or mobile app can fill a virtual shopping cart with any of the 30,000 available items and pay online, avoiding the checkout lines altogether. They then select a time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. the following day to pick up their orders for free or pay a $4.95 fee for same-day pickup.

Once an order is submitted, Wal-Mart's "personal shoppers" take over, picking out the produce, meat and other items selected by each shopper. Customers arriving to collect their purchases are directed to 10 reserved parking spaces marked in orange, where they simply call in their order number and wait for Wal-Mart employees to load up their vehicles.

Wal-Mart is betting that the ease of picking up groceries trumps having to be home to receive a delivery from competitors like AmazonFresh, which delivers food to Delaware from a Virginia fulfillment center. About 90 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Wal-Mart store.

"We see a huge opportunity through pickup, particularly in grocery," Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart's chief executive, told investors last year. "The combination of digital relationship and stores is a winner."

Wal-Mart's Middletown store is not the only supermarket in the pickup game.

ShopRites in Wilmington's Christiana Crossing shopping center off South Walnut Street and the Four Seasons shopping center off Del. 896 in Iron Hill have been offering online ordering and pickup service for nearly a decade. All six Delaware ShopRites owned by the Kenny family also will deliver groceries to customers.

ShopRite charges a $9.99 "shopping" fee for pickup service, while delivery starts at $18.98. No minimum purchase amount is required for either service.

Melissa Kenny, an executive with the locally owned chain, said both services have increased in popularity over the years, particularly among families on the go, customers with mobility issues and parents who want to be sure their college-age children are eating healthy. Kenny said she's hopeful Wal-Mart's decision to offer pickup in Middletown makes Delaware shoppers more aware of the service's advantages.

"All boats rise with the tide," she said. "And the more competition there is, the sharper we all get."

Contact business reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.