DES MOINES, IOWA (April 10, 2019) — Building on its commitment to save customers time and money in new ways, Walmart expects to spend an estimated $37.2 million this year in Iowa through the remodeling of seven stores, as well as the launch and continued-expansion of several customer-focused innovations.
“At Walmart, we’re consistently looking to improve the retail experience by enhancing our stores and investing in new technologies such as Pickup Towers and Online Grocery Pickup” said Kyla Luckie, Walmart regional general manager. “We’re excited for our customers in Iowa to discover an improved shopping experience with us through our new convenient services that can save money and time.”
2019 Walmart Remodels in Iowa
Walmart plans to remodel stores in the following locations:
Remodels
- 2150 E 1st Street, Grimes, Iowa
- 1111 Holton Drive, Le Mars, Iowa
- 3003 US-61, Muscatine, Iowa (reopened April 5)
- 1045 N Grand Avenue, Mount Pleasant, Iowa
- 2203 A Avenue W, Oskaloosa, Iowa
- 1831 Lake Avenue N., Storm Lake, Iowa
- 2485 Highway 92, Washington, Iowa
2019 Walmart Innovations in Iowa
Walmart will continue to innovate to help customers save time and money by creating a seamless shopping experience that gives them the options to shop when, where and how they want. The following are examples of the customer-focused innovations that will be launching or expanded this year in Iowa.
(1) Grocery Pickup
Busy customers love Walmart’s grocery-pickup option. It gives them the convenience of shopping online and the ease of quickly picking up groceries without having to leave their cars. The best part: it’s all at no additional cost. Walmart plans to expand the popular program to 17 stores across the state by the end of the year. The company also recently introduced Walmart Voice Order, which allows customers to simply say “Hey Google, talk to Walmart” and the Google Assistant will add items directly to their Walmart Grocery cart.
(2) Grocery Delivery
Walmart’s convenient grocery delivery service is also proving to be a hit with customers. This year, Walmart plans to add the service to 17 stores, increasing its coverage area in the state.
(3) Walmart Pickup Towers
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. It’s easy to do — once the order is ready, step up to the Pickup Tower and scan the barcode sent to your smartphone to retrieve your item. This year, Walmart plans to add 10 Pickup Towers to stores across the state.
(4) FAST Unloader
Today, product is unloaded as it arrives at the store through a complex, highly manual process that has seen little innovation over the last 50 years — until now. A new system in Walmart backrooms — known as FAST —automatically scans and sorts items that come off trucks based on priority and department, allowing associates to spend less time unloading in the backroom and more time on the sales floor with customers. This year, Walmart plans to expand the technology to 16 stores across the state.
(5) Autonomous Floor Scrubber
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 21 stores across the state this year.
Background and Context
Capital and Innovation Expenditure: The estimated spend in the state this fiscal year (February 1, 2019– January 31, 2020) is a portion of Walmart’s total capital-expenditure guidance of approximately $11.0 billion for Fiscal Year 2020, which was outlined last October at the company’s annual-meeting for the investment community and reiterated in February 2019.
National Innovation Expansion Strategy: Nationwide, this fiscal year Walmart plans to add an additional 1,200 autonomous floor-scrubbers, 300 autonomous shelf-scanners, 1,200 FAST unloaders, and 900 Pickup Towers to stores across the country. Also, the company plans to expand Online Grocery Pickup to an additional 1,000 stores and add another 800 stores across the country to the retailer’s Grocery Delivery footprint.
About Walmart in Iowa
Walmart Inc helps people around the world save money and live better — anytime and anywhere — in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. In Iowa we serve customers at 68 retail units and online through Walmart Online Grocery, Walmart.com, and our family of brands.We are proud to employ 17,218 associates in Iowa. Walmart supports local businesses, spending $875.4 million with Iowa suppliers in FYE19 and supporting 34,743 Iowa supplier jobs. Walmart continues to be a leader in employment opportunity, sustainability, and corporate philanthropy. In FY18, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation contributed more than $17.8 million in cash and in-kind donations to local nonprofits in Iowa and our Iowa associates volunteered more than 11,300 hours with local causes. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting our corporate website and our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter channels.
