{"id":9526,"date":"2026-09-14T18:50:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/9526\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T18:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:50:43","slug":"walmart-grows-last-mile-network-with-former-drug-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/9526\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart grows last-mile network with former drug stores"},"content":{"rendered":"

BENTONVILLE, Ark. \u2014 Walmart is expanding its fast-delivery infrastructure by converting former pharmacies and other vacant retail spaces into localized fulfillment hubs to speed grocery and household deliveries and strengthen its competitive position against Amazon.<\/p>\n

The retailer has opened at least three \u201cWalmart Depot\u201d locations in the past year across Texas, New Jersey, and Arkansas, according to public filings and Financial Times reporting. Proposed future sites include former Rite Aid pharmacies in New York and California, as well as a former Walgreens location in Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Competition in rapid grocery delivery is intensifying as Amazon expands 30-minute delivery service across dozens of U.S. markets and ramps up same-day grocery fulfillment capabilities.<\/p>\n

Amazon rolls out Amazon Now to dozens of cities across the U.S.<\/p>\n

Now providing 30-minute delivery to millions of customers<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The smaller-format depots, typically about 20,000 square feet, are not open to shoppers. Instead, they serve as last-mile fulfillment centers for Walmart\u2019s Spark delivery drivers, stocking high-demand grocery and household essentials for rapid pickup and delivery.<\/p>\n

The strategy reflects Walmart\u2019s growing focus on speed and convenience as competition intensifies in same-day and on-demand delivery. The company has said its U.S. e-commerce business now exceeds $100 billion annually and is growing more than 20% year over year.<\/p>\n

Walmart has long leveraged its network of more than 4,600 U.S. stores as a fulfillment advantage, but the depot model is designed to reduce congestion inside large-format Supercenters and improve picking efficiency for online orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt effectively just looks like a small grocery store or a drugstore,\u201d Walmart government relations director Jason Klipa said during a public hearing in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where the company is proposing a depot in a former Rite Aid location. \u201cThis allows them to come in, pick an order, not clog the store up and get the delivery out as quick as they can to the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initiative also highlights the growing reuse of vacant retail real estate as chains including Rite Aid, CVS Health and Walgreens continue to close underperforming stores.<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s filings describe the depots as a pilot program, with some facilities potentially capable of supporting deliveries within 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

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BENTONVILLE, Ark. \u2014 Walmart is expanding its fast-delivery infrastructure by converting former pharmacies and other vacant retail spaces into localized fulfillment hubs to speed grocery and household deliveries and strengthen its competitive position against Amazon. The retailer has opened at least three \u201cWalmart Depot\u201d locations in the past year across Texas, New Jersey, and Arkansas,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5008,5006,5004,5007,5005],"class_list":["post-9526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arkansas","tag-arkansas","tag-arkansas-dining","tag-arkansas-food","tag-arkansas-grocery-stores","tag-arkansas-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117270900062909795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}