Walmart to invest $60.9 million in Wisconsin stores - Greater Milwaukee Today

As part of upgrades at the Walmart location in Pewaukee, a 16foot Pickup Tower will be installed. Once an order is ready, the customer can approach the Pickup Tower and scan the barcode sent to their smartphone to retrieve their item.
Submitted photo

MILWAUKEE — Many retailers are implementing alternative services to provide customers to stay viable, and Walmart is no different, opting to invest $60.9 million this year in 11 of its Wisconsin stores, including in Pewaukee, Mukwonago, Germantown, Watertown and Greenfield.

In addition to renovations, some stores will be getting robotic floor scrubbers to help keep them a little cleaner.

“At Walmart, we strive to invest in technologies and innovations that improve the retail experience by empowering our associates and saving our customers time and money,” said Chad Holz, Walmart regional general manager in Wisconsin, in a statement. “By continuing to introduce new initiatives in Wisconsin — including Pickup Towers, Online Grocery Pickup and Grocery Delivery — as well as updating our existing stores to improve the overall shopping experience, we are proud to help our customers shop where and when they want.”

The Pewaukee store at 411 Pewaukee Road will get a remodel this year and receive a Pickup Tower.

Walmart Pickup Towers are 16-feet tall, high-tech vending machines capable of fulfilling a customer’s online order in less than a minute once they arrive at the store, according to the company. Once an order is ready, the customer can approach the Pickup Tower and scan the barcode sent to their smartphone to retrieve their item. In 2019, Walmart plans to add 20 Pickup Towers to stores across the state.

While Pewaukee is not slated to receive an autonomous floor scrubber, several other area stores will, including Greenfield, Mukwonago, Germantown and Watertown. They’ll get the technology later this year or early 2020. The autonomous floor scrubber uses assisted autonomy technology to perform the task of cleaning and scrubbing the concrete floors in stores. The company plans to expand the technology to 29 stores across Wisconsin this year.

According to the company, Walmart will continue to innovate and wants to create a seamless shopping experience for its customers.

It will also offer in Wisconsin grocery pickup, which provides the convenience of shopping online and the ease of quickly picking up groceries without having to leave a car. Also, Walmart is offering a grocery delivery service, which it will add to the 11 stores in Wisconsin it is investing in.

In 2019, Walmart will expand its FAST Unloader technology to 38 stores across Wisconsin.

A new system in Walmart backrooms, known as FAST, automatically scans and sorts items that come off trucks based on priority and department, allowing employees to spend less time unloading in the backroom and more time on the sales floor with customers.

Let's block ads! (Why?)