Walmart testing self-serve kiosks for grocery pick-up

Walmart is testing a giant self-serve kiosk for grocery pick-up in the parking lot of one of its Oklahoma superstores. Customers simply order their food online, then, upon arriving at the store, type in a code on the side of the 20-by-80-foot building, which retrieves the contents of their shopping list within minutes. A big metal door slides open, and customers pull their groceries from a bin—no human interaction needed.

Store employees pack each order into a bin and load them into the contraption ahead of time. The storage bay is equipped with freezers and refrigeration and will eventually be accessible 24 hours a day.

The massive vending machine is only there on a trial basis for the time being, but if all goes well, the company hopes to expand it to other locations. It's also been testing a much smaller in-store kiosk for non-grocery items.

Walmart's super-sized dispenser is the latest example of the company leveraging what it sees as its one major advantage over Amazon: its sprawling brick-and-mortar infrastructure and thousands of employees.

source: mashable.com