Walmart will be spending some money – #$264.9 million to be exact – this year in Texas to remodel 54 stores, including 16 in North Texas. The updates will include making changes to accommodate new inititatives such as grocery pickup and delivery as well as technology updates such as pickup towers, basically high-tech vending machines allowing
“It’s an exciting time to be a Walmart customer, especially here in DFW,” said Sonya Hostetler, Walmart vice president and regional general manager. “As we continue to roll out more innovations in our stores, we are offering families new ways to save time and money in communities throughout North Texas.”
Among the stores are the McCart Avenue location in Fort Worth and the Bedford store at 2108 Bedford Road.
2019 Walmart Remodels in Texas
Walmart plans to remodel 54 stores, including in the following 16 locations across DFW:
• Allen, 730 W. Exchange Parkway, Allen TX 75013
• Athens, 1405 E. Tyler Street Athens, TX 75751
• Bedford, 2108 Bedford Road, Bedford TX 76021
• The Colony, 4691 State Highway 121, The Colony, TX 75056
• Crowley, 1221 FM 1187 Crowley TX 76036
• Dallas, 9301 Forest Lane, Dallas TX 75243
• Dallas, 2275 Gus Thomasson Road, Dallas TX 75228
• Denton, 2750 W. University Drive, Denton TX 76201
• Fort Worth, 7451 McCart Avenue Fort Worth TX 76133
• Granbury, 735 E. Highway 377, Granbury TX 76048
• Frisco, 8555 Preston Road, Frisco TX 75034
• Plano, 3100 Custer Road, Plano TX 75075
• Roanoke, 1228 N. Highway 377, Roanoke TX 76262
• Rockwall, 850 W. Rusk St., Rockwall TX 75087
• Seagoville, 220 N. Highway 175, Seagoville TX 75159
• Sulphur Springs, 1750 S. Broadway Street, Sulphur Springs TX 75482
2019 Walmart Innovations in Texas
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 expanded this year in Texas.
(1) Grocery Pickup
• Walmart plans to expand the popular program to more than 74 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
• This year, Walmart plans to add the service to 84 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 a customer’s smartphone to retrieve the ordered item. This year, Walmart plans to add 82 Pickup Towers to stores across the state.
(4) Autonomous Shelf Scanner
• These scanners use automation to scan shelves and help identify where in-stock levels are low, prices are wrong, or labels are missing. In addition, the scanners provide a real-time view of inventory in the store– information used to direct associates to the areas of the store that need the most attention. This year, Walmart plans to expand the technology to 25 additional stores across the state.
(5) 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. 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 137 stores across the state.
(6) 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 171 stores across the state this year.
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.