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High-tech distribution center coming from Walmart

Robotics expected to improve processing of perishables

Russell Redman

October 19, 2018

4 Min Read
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Walmart plans to build what the company calls its “first high-tech distribution center for fresh and frozen groceries” in Shafter, Calif.

The new facility will process 40% more products than a traditional DC, according to Walmart, which announced the project in a blog post on Thursday. The company said it expects to break ground “in the coming weeks” and open the facility in the fall of 2020.

Employing technology from Witron, a German warehousing storage and logistics firm, the distribution site will handle produce, dairy, eggs, flowers, frozen foods and other perishables for Walmart and Sam’s Club stores.

“Supply chain is the competitive advantage for retail operation. I’m excited about Shafter because of the technology that we’re going to be using,” Tim Cooper, senior vice president of supply chain at Walmart, said in a video about the project. “Witron is an exciting company, and they have a great reputation,” he explained, describing its equipment as intuitive and reliable.

“The beauty of this is that we take one of the most manual jobs that we have, and we create this high-tech enablement to get faster, better service, better quality and really position ourselves to be relevant for future operations,” Cooper noted.

Instead of manually stacking boxes and assembling pallets, the Shafter DC will use robotics to build a more flexible and dense pallet that will allow more products to fit into a truck, reducing transportation costs, according to Walmart. The technology also is expected to cut down on damaged items, resulting from instances when a heavy item like a watermelon is placed atop a case of strawberries, the company said.

Related:Analyst: Walmart poised to overtake Amazon in online grocery

“Every product is measured and documented so that we know how to handle it,” Project Engineer Shayne Wahlmeier said in the blog. “A computer algorithm shows all the cases ordered for a given store and determines how to palletize them to maximize the space on a pallet or trailer. It also takes into account density — what’s crushable, what’s not.”

Cost savings from more efficient transport and reduced food waste can be passed on to customers, who in turn will be more confident that a product is in stores when they come in to shop.

“This is going to allow us to deliver consistently,” Cooper said. “It means that we’ll likely have fresher product coming to [stores]. Speed will be the name of the game for us, and we’ll be able to reduce the cost to serve. The customers will have what they’re looking for, and we’ll be able to provide a better service using the most current technology.”

Related:Walmart eyes pickup-only store in former Dominick’s

Tech pilots on the way

Supply chain and technology are two key areas of Walmart’s planned billion in capital expenditures for fiscal 2020. And on the grocery side of the business, several technology-focused pilots are under way.

In late July, the company said it had teamed up with Waymo — formerly Google’s self-driving car project — to test an online grocery service in which driverless vehicles pick up customers at their homes and take them to the store to collect their orders. The service is being piloted in Chandler, Ariz.

About a week later, Walmart announced a partnership with automation specialist Alert Innovation in a test of its Alphabot robot to help fill online grocery orders faster. The system, developed for Walmart, is being put into action at the retailer’s supercenter in Salem, N.H.

And in September, Walmart said it began testing a crowdsourcing-based service that enlists drivers using their own vehicles to provide last-mile delivery of groceries ordered online. Called Spark Delivery, the service is being piloted in New Orleans and Nashville, Tenn., and is due to be rolled out to several more metropolitan areas this year.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart aims to make online grocery delivery to 100 metropolitan areas — covering 40% of U.S. households — by the end of 2018 through its own services and third-party providers. As of late September, the company said it had online grocery delivery in over 50 markets and more than 2,000 grocery pickup locations. The retailer projects that it will have 2,140 grocery pickup sites in 430 markets, covering 69% of U.S. households, by the close of its 2019 fiscal year at the end of January.

The company said at its annual analysts meeting earlier this week that it expects to have about 3,100 curbside pickup and 1,600 delivery locations by the end of fiscal 2020.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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