Walmart's answer to Amazon Prime set to launch in July, according to report

[JudyM]

Source: CNBC

... the membership program will cost $98 per year and include same-day delivery of groceries, fuel discounts at Walmart gas stations and other perks. The report cites multiple unnamed sources.
Since Amazon launched the Prime program about 15 years ago, it’s grown to more than 150 million members. Amazon has used the subscription-based service to entice customers to shop more frequently on its site. For $119 each year, customers get fast and free shipping, access to Amazon’s streaming service and discounts at Amazon-owned grocery store Whole Foods.

Walmart has significantly grown its e-commerce business, but it’s lagged behind Amazon in market share and market cap. Amazon is valued at about $1.5 trillion, compared with Walmart, which is valued at about $358 billion as of midafternoon Tuesday.

Walmart reported online sales growth of 37% for last year, topping its own goal of 35% growth. Its online sales surged by 74% in the fiscal first quarter that ended April 30, as the coronavirus pandemic drove more customers online for groceries and other essentials.

The retailer has leaned on its grocery business to grow online. Walmart delivers to the home, but it also offers curbside service at its brick-and-mortar locations as a convenient option for customers. This spring, Walmart launched Express Delivery at many of its stores. The new service, which has a $10 fee, delivers purchases to customers’ doors in less than two hours.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/07/walmarts-answer-to-amazon-prime-set-to-launch-in-july-according-to-report.html

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Bit of info,

Walmart has just flooded North West Vegas Valley with Credit Card offers as of yesterday.

So something is up. If you have a credit score above room Temp,you most likely get a WalMart Master Card at 29% interest in the mail

[iluvtennis]

10. 29% interest - seriously. What a rip off. nt

[PSPS]

18. Poverty is big business

The banks get the money for free at the discount window, then loan it out at 29%. Too bad we have no usury laws anymore.

[iluvtennis]

19. wow, no usury laws anymore - I didn't know that. thanks for the info. nt

[Mike 03]

2. Delivery of groceries is going to be relatively appealing as long as the

coronavirus is uncontained, and maybe beyond if it becomes a habit.

[Born Free]

17. Walmart Home Delivery

I think Walmart uses independent shoppers for home delivery that will require tips, it will depend on how well that works out before we try the service.

We tried both Shipt & Instacart and both services were acceptable, but far too expensive for anyone on a limited fixed income. It's not the service fees and higher prices, but the tips the shoppers demand to even take an order. I have read posts on Reddit it is so bad some customer service reps have even told customers to offer large tips just to get a shopper to take their order, then reduce the tip after the delivery. This infuriates the shoppers, and they talk of getting revenge. Following the shoppers on Reddit forums will give you and good picture of what is going on.

Costco same day delivery has been the best for our needs. Although Costco uses Instacart, they seem to have Instacart shoppers that do not require large tips to take our orders. We give a reasonable fixed rate tip rather than percentage of the sale and shoppers know what the tip is before they take the order. We also make sure to set up all the preferences so the shopper knows exactly what to replace and what to skip if the item is not in stock, it does not affect their tip either way. We have made several orders and not had problems getting a shopper when ordering through Costco.com and so far all the shoppers did a good job.

[Politicub]

3. Never thought I would say this...

but Walmart.com has been a better source than Amazon for most products I’ve needed over the past three months.

Prime became fairly useless when I wasn’t able to schedule grocery pickups or order food from online. Their supply chain must have completely broken down. I didn’t need to buy a new TV; my family needed staples like food, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, etc.

And Amazon marketplace is rife with ripoffs and counterfeit goods. Walmart also allows third-party sellers, but they can be filtered from search results.

I think Walmart was able to do a better job with its supply chain based on their experience and supplier relationships. Amazon dropped the ball and has never recovered, imho. I was so surprised to find an 80 oz bottle of Walmart’s house brand of hand sanitizer for $7. It smells like cheap tequila and hot garbage, but I’ve gotten used to it. I figured it came from a distillery. The point was they didn’t try to rip me off.

I relied on Kroger grocery pickup during the first few weeks of the pandemic. That was an area where both Walmart and Amazon fell short because there never were appointments available for pickup.

There are many things I don’t like about Walmart — especially as it relates to discouraging employees to form a union. But I can’t deny it has come through during the pandemic.

[HotTeaBag]

4. I agree.

The thing that killed the 'Amazon Experience' for me was the fake products being sold at three or more times what they were worth and then never even arriving - especially gym-related equipment early on.

It seems like Walmart will (and has at least so far) do a better job of monitoring who is selling on their platform - not to mention that because of it's size, Walmart will be the one you'll be buying from directly most of the time.

[EllieBC]

7. This.

You see Wish and AliExpress stuff on Amazon for way more.

[renate]

5. I hate to admit it but I've been using Walmart pickup as well

I tried Fred Meyer pickup once (owned by Kroger, in Oregon). I'm just glad I have another option because there was a problem with the price of my order, there was a long wait (about a week!) to get a reply from customer service, and when I did finally get a reply it was basically "sucks to be you." Well, it wasn't that bad, but it was just an explanation for the problem and no attempt to make it up to me with an apology or a coupon or anything. I knew there was an explanation, Fred, but it wasn't my fault, it was yours.

Walmart's prices are good and I've gotten great, prompt, easy customer service the few times there were problems with my order. I'm absolutely not a complainer, in fact just the opposite, but after a zero-out-of-one experience I won't be going back to Fred Meyer when I don't have to.

It feels super weird to be praising Walmart after boycotting them for 25 years, but they've made this pandemic much easier for me, so I have to give credit where credit is due.

[Politicub]

12. I know the super-weird feeling you're talking about :-)

Walmart has been doing a good job. I've been considering dropping Prime, but there's always those one-off things on Amazon that we order. I don't use their streaming option that much, and the $119 would go pretty far toward shipping charges.

I probably will keep Prime out of habit more than anything else. I doubt I'll subscribe to Walmart's service since I can do ship to store for pickup, and it isn't far from me.

[nilram]

6. Are they still putting solar panels on some of their buildings?

Last edited Tue Jul 7, 2020, 10:55 PM - Edit history (1)

I’ve heard they’ve gotten better with employee relations so I’ll shop there on rare occasion. Amazon, only if it’s a specialty part I can’t get anywhere else—too many bad stories about how they manage their warehouse workers.

[mwooldri]

15. Walmart has been getting better IMO.

Yes, they still want solar on their store roofs. Walmart is the place truck drivers actually want to work at. I still believe the retail staff should get paid more, and management given bigger budgets to hire enough staff to run the stores properly. But strangely Wallyworld is getting better.

[exboyfil]

8. Turns out best value for Amazon Prime for me

is the access to the free or inexpensive trials of a variety of different streaming services. You can rotate through a whole bunch of different movies and some interesting series over time. Also I think I like the Prime shows the best (especially with the end of the Marvel Netflix shows). Bosch, The Boys, The Expanse, The Man in the High Castle, and Good Omens.

There are some good books free as well (I keep banking the free monthly selection). They usually have a couple of good movies come up each month as well. They have a lot of the old HBO stuff (or least they did).

[ashredux]

9. Well, this is a dilemma. Not sure the Walton family is any better than Jeff Bezos

[awesomerwb1]

11. I can't believe I'm gonna say this

But I hope Walmart improves their website (Horrendous) and give give Amazon a tiny little bit of competition.

I handle our Amazon accounts(multiple) where I work a couple days a week and i have to say I HATE Amazon.

it used to be that when someone purchased something on Amazon we would get the customer's name, address, email and phone number. Then it was just name and number, then just first name and number. Now we only get a long number.

The amount of control Amazon has is insane. When a customer has an issue with a purchase they will just leave negative Feedback or a bad review. We hardly ever have the chance to deal directly with the customer to try to solve their issue and Amazon will almost always side with the customer so there is tons of fraud where customers claim they never received their product tracking notwithstanding and generous Amazon take the money out of the company's account to replace it for the customer for free. And negative feedback and bad reviews = Amazon will freeze, suspend or even delete your seller account.

Their fees are stratospheric so they keep almost as much of the profit per sale as our company does.

[Aristus]

13. Wal-Mart TV?

What is it? All Trump, All The Time? The Meth Channel?

[NurseJackie]

14. So... we like Walmart now?

Or we're just supposed to hate it less than Amazon?

[mwooldri]

16. I'd say hate it less than Amazon.

Walmart is far from perfect. Way far from perfect. But Amazon wants to be able to replace Walmart in our daily lives by offering ultra quick delivery (delivery within a couple of hours, not days... delivery by drone etc) of products without having much of a "brick and mortar" presence.

[Captain Stern]

20. Yes, we like Walmart...for now.

Dammit...get with the program.

Walmart is good, Amazon sucks.

Is that really that hard?