BENTONVILLE, CA - Wal-Mart has announced its decision to expand its grocery-pickup services, adding several dozen new locations to it repertoire.

Starting with five additional grocery pickup locations in Northwest Arkansas, the company says the new locations are part of a bigger expansion of the service. In recent weeks, the retailer has added dozens of grocery-pickup locations to parking lots of Supercenter and Neighborhood Markets around Phoenix, Denver, and Huntsville, AL, a spokesman for Wal-Mart told The Wall Street Journal.

With Wal-Mart’s service, shoppers can order groceries and other products online, and when customers reach the Wal-Mart parking lot, employees will bring the food and merchandise to the car. 

Wal-Mart’s growing investment in grocery-pickup locations comes at a time when grocers and other retailers are searching for ways to make grocery delivery or pickup popular and profitable. This announcement comes on the heels of both Publix and Target adding new delivery services for their customers earlier this month.

Wal-Mart has also experimented with grocery delivery in the past, opening its first grocery-delivery test in San Jose, CA in 2011. The company expanded the service to Denver in 2013 but has since focused on opening more pickup locations.

Bryan Gildenberg, Chief Knowledge Officer at Kantar Retail, a research and consulting firm explained to The Wall Street Journal, “The U.S. is a car-based country. Convenience for many Americans isn’t waiting at home for something to show up.”

Will grocery pickup or grocery delivery become the next wave for shoppers wanting a more convenient way to buy their fresh produce? Stay tuned as AndNowUKnow continues to follow these developing trends.

Wal-Mart