Walmart Begins to Scale Local Fulfillment Centers

Walmart stores are transforming to serve more and more purposes. The company is using stores to fill pickup and delivery orders to make Walmart deliveries and more. The company is scaling the number of stores that will also serve as local fulfillment centers.

A local fulfillment center (LFC) is a compact, modular warehouse built within, or added to, a store. In addition to fresh and frozen items, LFCs can store thousands of the items we know customers want most, from consumables to electronics.

Instead of an associate walking the store to fulfill an order from its shelves, automated bots retrieve the items from within the fulfillment center. The items are then brought to a picking workstation, where the order can be assembled with speed.

So, while the system retrieves the order for assembly, a personal shopper handpicks fresh items like produce, meat and seafood and large general merchandise from the sales floor.

Once the order is collected, the system stores it until it’s ready for pickup. This whole process can take just a few minutes from the time the order is placed to the time it’s ready for a customer or delivery driver to collect.

For more information, visit the company’s official statement.