Walmart is testing a delivery service that asks store employees to take online orders to customers on their way home from work. In a June 1, 2017 announcement, the company described a pilot at two stores in New Jersey and one in northwest Arkansas. Workers can opt in to earn extra income, Walmart says; this is a small test, not a service available across its US store network. [S1]
The route begins with trucks Walmart already uses to move orders from fulfillment centers to stores for pickup. Under the test, those trucks can also carry home-delivery orders to a store near the customer. Participating employees collect packages from the backroom after finishing their store work, load them into their vehicles and use phone navigation to make deliveries on the way home. There is no separate trip to collect the package: the employee is already at the store. [S1]
Walmart says employees can choose their delivery days, the number of packages they will take, and package size and weight limits. They can change those preferences, and participation is voluntary. Its allocation technology is intended to minimize the extra distance employees collectively drive beyond their commutes. That routing aim matters: it tries to attach delivery work to a journey already being made, rather than treating every home delivery as a separate trip. [S1]
Customers already had a separate shipping offer. In a release datelined January 31, Walmart announced free two-day shipping on more than two million items without a membership fee. Home delivery required a $35 purchase, while orders shipped to stores had no price threshold. The offer applied in the contiguous United States and excluded freight and marketplace orders. Those terms do not tell an employee what delivering an order will pay. [S1][S2]
Marc Lore, identified in the post as president and chief executive of Walmart US eCommerce, wrote that many pilot orders were arriving the next day and that employees liked the chance to earn more cash. Those are Walmart’s reports of the test, not an independent measurement of delivery speed or worker satisfaction. The announcement gives no pay schedule or quantified account of the extra driving costs. It also does not explain how fuel, vehicle wear or insurance would be handled, so it cannot establish an employee’s net earnings. [S1]
For a worker deciding whether to join, the relevant comparison is the additional payment against the additional time, miles and expenses—not the entire commute, which the worker would make anyway. That is the practical implication of Walmart’s routing design, not a finding that participants gain or lose money. A shorter detour could make an offer more attractive; the announcement leaves the payment and expense details needed to judge it unstated. [S1]
Source documents
- Serving Customers in New Ways: Walmart Begins Testing Associate Deliveryhttps://corporate.walmart.com/news/2017/06/01/serving-customers-in-new-ways-walmart-begins-testing-associate-delivery
- Walmart Launches Free Two-Day Shipping on More Than Two Million Items, No Membership Requiredhttps://corporate.walmart.com/news/2017/01/31/walmart-launches-free-two-day-shipping-on-more-than-two-million-items-no-membership-required