Springfield’s Big Y Foods Inc. has had a shop-by-web service since 2008. Shoppers can buy all their groceries, including perishables and produce, on BigY.com then have their items brought out to their car. The service is offered at Big Y’s on Cooley Street in Springfield in Greenfield and in Walpole.
April 26, 2011 - At the Walmart Store on Boston Rd. Tuesday, store manager Gene Martins, center, talks with store associates George Churchill, left, and Yaritza Alvarado, right, about the new site to store and pick up today programs.SPRINGFIELD – Busy mom Cheryl E. Labrie of Springfield was living the dream this week.
The only item she’d come to the sprawling Walmart Supercenter on Boston Road to buy was waiting for her just steps inside the door.
Of course, she’d already ordered the John Deere riding toy her 3-year-old son had been dreaming of through walmart.com and had it shipped to the store for free. Walmart expanded its pick-up service this week with “pick-up-today.” Ship to store is available for items that aren’t in stock at stores like the Boston Road location and takes two to four days. Pick-up-today allows shoppers to buy things the store has in stock and pick them up in just a few hours.
“A lot of people are doing their browsing online before they shop,” said Eugene L. Martins, the manager of the Walmart on Boston Road. “This allows them to comparison shop at work when they are on a break or whatever then come right here and get their item.”
Western Massachusetts is one of Walmart’s test markets for pick up today but it will be nationwide by the end of June. Walmart has stores in Springfield, Chicopee, Westfield, Northampton, Hadley and Ware.
For now Walmart is offering pick up today in just a few product lines like home electronics, household items like small appliances and cookware and home entertainment like video games. But Martins said pick up today will include as many as 40,000 items.
Martins said the program will not offer groceries even after it expands.
Springfield’s Big Y Foods Inc. has had a shop-by-web service since 2008. Shoppers can buy all their groceries, including perishables and produce, on BigY.com then have their items brought out to their car. The service is offered at Big Y’s on Cooley Street in Springfield in Greenfield and in Walpole.
Stop & Shop also offers Peapod home-delivery service in some parts of New England.
Walmart outfitted employees with hand-held computers and small printers that attach to their belts, said Michael J. Mason, the zone manager for entertainment at the Boston Road Walmart. When someone placed the store’s first pick up today order this week, an iPad, an employee was alerted by the hand-held computer. That employee then selected the item and printed a sticker with the customer’s name and order number. That sticker went on a bin near the customer service window.
But what about losing all the ancillary sales? All those times customers go to Walmart for a toaster and end up coming out with $50 worth of stuff they spotted on the endcaps?
“Well, they still have to come to the store to pick it up,” Martins said. “So we are hoping they do the rest of their shopping then.”
Labrie said she’d use the new pick-it-up especially for bulky items.