Walmart InHome All Hype little Hope

How can a retailer so miss read it customer base?  Sure, Walmart is trying to expand and compete with Amazon or so they say.  The fact is if that was the truth, they would not have elevated this InHome Delivery technology.

Rather Walmart should have devised a way to reduce prices, drive in-store customer counts, and improve ‘off-the-shelf’- and ‘out-of-stock’ items according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® to edify their position of the largest grocery store chain in the ‘middle of the grocery sector’

This new InHome service will let Walmart associates drop off orders right into in the refrigerator inside your home. Why? In the opinion of Johnson; once again this is nothing more than a vanity project providing a platform the C-level staff of Walmart incremental cocktail party ego bosting jabber. 

Marc Lore, president and CEO of Walmart eCommerce U.S., must have been justifying the building of his team when he unveiled Walmart InHome Delivery.  Johnson, asks how does InHome edify Walmart’s core customers?  How many years until they project profitability for InHome?  What company has successfully implemented inside the house delivery with profitability? Why, does Walmart think they can do it better?

Let’s face it many Americans don’t’ even know their neighbors name. When asked whether or not they knew the names of the neighbors who live close a recent study found only that 19% said that they knew the names, three-fifths of Americans know either some (29%) or none (28%) of their neighbors by name. Here is my point if they don’t know the name of the neighbor, they sure are not going to let them into their home.

In a country where the President has half of the country afraid of starving women and children entering from our southern border seeking safe harbor, jobs and food.  Then condoning the separating of parents from children and placing them in a concentration camp’s / prison.  Why would anyone think it is time to allow someone working at Walmart or even Amazon / Whole Foods into their home?

One thing is clear Walmart’s shift from ‘Low Prices Everyday’ to become the largest grocery in the ‘MIDDLE’ of the grocery sector took a lot less time than many predicted. Don’t get me wrong the technology and the camera I am sure work.  After all I was the one who sold the first seven online ordering accounts for chain restaurants with CyberSlice. CyberMeals, and Food.com back in the day.  

Walmart’s customers and maybe America is not ready for a large scale InHome delivery platform at this time.  It may be scalable it simply will not be profitable until more Americans are willing to open their door to their neighbor or even know their neighbors name.

It is true the middle is not traditionally where any retailer wanted to be.  Given Walmart’s size they might make the middle of the market a comfortable place to be if they focus on the customer of today and tomorrow not the customer of 2030.   Our success clue for today, focus on your core customer. 

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/