[tangoed]

The Walmart.com and pickup/delivery division on their website is not a thing anymore. They seem to be testing a new beta version of the website, and I got to try it yesterday. I have Walmart plus and this is how it went:

One seamless search option, no pickup/delivery and Walmart.com options. I added everything, including groceries and other non groceries to my cart. I selected delivery. Some items were not available in my local store but it didn't matter. Walmart automatically divided my order into two parts, where it decided to ship me some of the things I ordered (chips and club soda) that weren't available at my local store. It was definitely great experience and the UI was clean. I didn't get any out of stock errors at checkout too. Can't wait to use it full time.

The only reason I use Walmart is that I don't trust the products from Amazon anymore, even when they are sold by Amazon. I once ordered shampoo sold my Amazon that was obviously fake, and then I searched around and realized Amazon has a program where they gather the products from different sellers and put it in one huge bin and call all of them sold by Amazon.com

[gurchik]

> I once ordered shampoo sold my Amazon that was obviously fake, and then I searched around and realized Amazon has a program where they gather the products from different sellers and put it in one huge bin and call all of them sold by Amazon.com

This is a common scam. Third party sellers will send a fake product to Amazon to be FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon). When someone buys this product from the seller on the product's webpage, the seller is hoping the buyer will actually receive a genuine Amazon product instead that happens to already be in the warehouse. The buyer will be happy and will not complain, so the seller receives their money. However that fake product is still sitting in the warehouse, and when some unlucky buyer receives the fake product, they'll demand a refund. Some unlucky third party seller will have to foot the bill for that refund.

Youtuber "chaseontwowheels" ordered a $6000 camera Sold and Shipped by Amazon.com. He instead received a box of rocks. He got a refund from a suspicious Amazon and shipped him another camera. While filming a video about the incident, he opened the box and it was rocks again. He ended up buying the camera from B&H and finally got the legitimate product.

https://www.diyphotography.net/buyer-orders-6000-camera-amaz...

I've run into a similar problem. I ordered an electric beard trimmer and the box looked new but there was hair inside so it was obviously used. There were a lot of recent reviews about this from different sellers. I'm assuming some third party seller sent a bunch of returned stuff to Amazon and they threw it all into the same bin.

[nebula8804]

How do I get access to this beta? I would shop at Walmart a lot more but their website has been hot garbage as far back as I can remember. The exact scenario you mentioned is what makes it a miserable experience. I just tried it again

1) I put in my zipcode and checkmark my store. 2) I search for "AA batteries" 1) I put in my zipcode again and checkmark my store because it forgot the previous search. 3) I select In store pickup 4) As I scroll it co-mingles results that are in store with results that require a shipment. Seems like it does this for items that are not sold by walmart so while it correctly filtered out items sold by walmart that require shipment, whats the point if items not sold by walmart are still there.

As a sidenote, it does not tell me where in the store the item is. I just want to get item location, go into the store and pick it up.

Back in 2016 I tried the ship to store service. When I arrived, I went to the back of the store in order to pick it up. I was the only one there. I signed in on their kiosk and then waited. The clerk disappeared into the back and I kid you not, it took 30 mins to retrieve my order. She couldn't care less about getting my package. Keep in mind that I was the only one there and their fancy screen was listing my name as the only one in the queue!

The cherry on top of all of this is that their prices and selection are not always competitive with Amazon in my experience. It would be fine given that I am guaranteed to get legitimate equipment and get it same day but all the issues above steal enough time that it makes it not worth it most of the time.

I assume Walmart Labs is developing all this stuff. They must have better work life balance because their output is nowhere near the quality of Amazon.

I find this problem with Target to an extent as well. They have a better ship to store experience but I have found that their inventory status on their website has no correlation to reality whatsoever and their search is terrible. I have been trying to build an app to scrape all their items so I could build a personal tool that works better. I really want to avoid Amazon if I can but the competitors just make it so hard to do so.

[silisili]

I can't say the experience has changed a lot on the pickup side. I bought a few hooks and thought I'd zip on by for curbside. Huge mistake. Every spot was filled, people hanging out of their car looking miserable like they'd been there a long time. I made a loop and parked while I assessed everything, and in the five or so minutes I was there, never saw an employee. This was just last week. I'll definitely not do pickup again.

[silisili]

That's great to hear - thanks for sharing. I'm also a plus member, but I guess not in the beta. The app and website both still segregate the two.

How you describe it working is exactly how I've always wished it would work. Glad to hear it.