My first Wal-Mart Pick-up experience

If you asked me what my favorite grocery store is, I would be pretty quick to say "Costco", but I live in a small town and the nearest Costco is over 2 hours from here. Wal-mart is generally my go-to for the majority of my grocery shopping, though I occasionally shop elsewhere.

In recent years I have struggled with widespread pain and chronic fatigue. Sometimes I put off grocery shopping, or send one of my kids with a list. Other times I go myself and just push through it, but usually crash when I get home. Once in a while I feel fine and am able to get groceries without too much difficulty, but in general, grocery shopping is a big chore for me. Oh, and did I mention, I have THREE teenage sons?! I have heard teen girls eat a lot too, but it is hard to believe anyone eats as much as teen boys! Sometimes I will shop for the whole week, and four days later I will hear "We're out of groceries! There is nothing to eat!" While this usually isn't entirely true, we are often out of a lot more than I anticipated half way through the week.

I was delighted (and skeptical) when I heard about the Wal-Mart grocery pick-up coming to town. This could save me so much time and energy! I downloaded the app and waited. I waited for my store to show up as a pick-up site. Finally! July 3rd! I started adding things to my cart on the app a few days before and placed my order on July 2nd. I chose 10-11 am as my pick-up time. Oops! I forgot to add something to my order! Phew! No problem. I was able to add things I had forgotten for a few hours still. I found the app easy to use, it was easy to look up items I wanted to purchase, and they even had a list of items a normally buy on the top of the page so I could add them. (Y'all know you are being tracked, right?)

Today at 9:41 a.m. I received a notification that my order was ready. My son and I got ready and headed out the door. I "checked in" on the app at 9:48 a.m. (they ask you to turn on your phones GPS for this so they know how far away you are and how long it will take for you to get to the store). They estimated my arrival in 17 minutes. It took us 20 to get there. We arrived at 10:08 am. The app told me there was no need to call the number on the sign, as I had already checked in on the app, they would be out in a moment. It took 10 minutes for someone to come out to our car and ask for my name so they could pull my order. She apologized for the long wait and said my order would be out in a minute. Another 10 minutes passed and at 10:28 am my car was being loaded. I received another apology for the long wait and was asked if I would like to inspect my groceries before departing. I declined. I could tell by the sweat on the brows of the people loading my car that it was hot, and when I checked the weather app on my phone I saw that the heat index was 107F. No thank you! I will stay in my air conditioned car and inspect my groceries at home. The Wal-Mart employees were courteous and friendly, perhaps more so than I have come to expect from Wal-Mart.


I arrived home just over an hour after receiving the notification that my order was ready. (If I had gone and shopped myself it would have taken me more like 2.5 hours). We brought the groceries inside and inspected them. I did not order a lot in the way of produce, a couple of lemons, a couple of cucumbers, and some cherries. All were just as I would have picked out myself, except maybe for the number of cherries. I ordered a 2.25 lb bag of cherries, but according to the receipt, I received a 2.21 lb bag and a .76 lb bag. I decided to weigh them myself, and the total was 4.5 lbs! Not really a big deal. They were out of jicama, so I did not get any, nor did I pay for it. There was one substitution, they were out of the 16 oz. bacon I ordered so they gave me a 22 oz. pack at the same price as the 16 oz. The only thing they actually got "wrong" was the peanut butter. It was the right size and brand, but they gave us the regular instead of the "natural" I had ordered.

Over all, I was pleased with what I got and super pleased that I didn't have to get out of my car! Probably not the best thing to sit there running the A/C for 20 minutes, but between today being their first day, and being the day before a holiday, I thought it went fairly well. Hopefully they will get the hang of things quickly and I can spend less time inside Wal-Mart, especially during the Summer!

One last observation. As I add items to my virtual cart on the app, I can see my total. It helps me keep an eye on how much I am spending and adjust my purchase accordingly. While they do try to show you other items you may want to purchase before you "check out", I believe there are a lot fewer impulse purchases made using the app vs walking through the store. Both of these things should help me stay on track with my budget.

By the way, I was not asked to write this review. I was not compensated for writing it either. Just thought my friends might be interested to hear my experience. ;)