I placed a Walmart.com order at around 1pm today, and the automated messaging at checkout told me to expect it to arrive tomorrow.
You know, with the pandemic and everything that followed in its wake, I stopped expecting 2-day shipping from Amazon and other retailers.
Advertisement
By the end of the day tomorrow, with free shipping? Sounds good, right?
There’s something else I wanted to order, but my day was so hectic that I don’t remember if I placed a second order or not. Rather than go downstairs to check my laptop to see if the items still in a browser window and waiting to be ordered, I checked my order history from my desktop.
Huh? What does it mean that today’s order was already delivered? According to my order history, my order from today was delivered from the store at around 6:30pm. That’s not possible – right?
I went to downstairs, opened the front door, and there was my order. One item was in a shopping bag and the other was left bare in its retail box packaging.
Even when Amazon offers free same-day delivery, which in my experience has become very rare, orders have to be placed before noon, or maybe even earlier – it’s been so long that I don’t remember. What Walmart did here, delivering my order in less than 6 hours, I am extremely surprised.
Why was my order fulfilled from the store? Not that I’m complaining – I opted for shipping since I couldn’t spare the minimum 30-40 minutes it would take for an in-store pickup roundtrip.
Advertisement
I suppose they saved money on a box and traditional shipping fees? Whatever the explanation, I didn’t expect this.
When looking at some other items, there’s a message that items will be delivered from a store, but the items I ordered say they are sold and shipped by Walmart.com. How did Walmart’s fulfillment systems know to redirect the order to the local store instead?
Some stores fulfill online orders with in-store merchandise. For example, a couple of my Lowe’s orders were fulfilled by stores – or cancelled by stores who were apparently tasked to fulfill online orders but lacked the inventory to do so. But those were still shipped to me.
It seems that Walmart has upped their game, adding store delivery into their online order fulfilment scheme.
Why is any of this important to ToolGuyd readers? Remember: Walmart will be Delivering Tools and Supplies for Home Depot.
My first thought, when I brought my delivery in, was “wow, that was shockingly fast.” Almost immediately, my next thought was “wow, is this the Walmart local delivery network Home Depot signed up with?!!”
I’ve used Home Depot’s express delivery before, and it’s fairly fast, but they also charge a fee ($8.99 for small car-transportable orders). For today’s Walmart order, there was no fee since my order total was over $35, enabling free shipping.
Can we expect the same kind of speed and ease of delivery from Home Depot once their partnership with Walmart spreads to different areas?
I know that this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I was so surprised that I felt compelled to share this with you.
I found it interesting that Home Depot partnered with Walmart as their first delivery service retail client. But with what happened today, that interest has now turned into excitement. It seems that I just experienced the rapid efficiency of Walmart’s local delivery capabilities, and I think that their arrangement with Home Depot is going to be a far bigger deal than I anticipated.
And yes, other stores offer same-day delivery. Apple, for instance, has a fee-based courier service that can deliver same-day. But how many other retailers deliver same-day for free?
Sure, this was just one data point – just one surprisingly fast and satisfactory experience – but it could also be a sign of how things will be when Walmart starts delivering orders for Home Depot.
Jason
I’m thinking of ditching Prime now that most items take almost a week to get to me. Its not worth the almost 100 dollars now for that kinda service level when it used to be the item would arrive 2 days depending on when you placed the order. In my area I haven’t seen the option for next day delivery in forever. I don’t get it as Amazon has built god knows how many warehouse and delivery facilities by me now.
Ray
I thought that was just happening to me because I moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, I didn’t think it was more widespread…..
Koko The Talking Ape
I haven’t noticed any slowing in Prime shipping, but then I often didn’t use the fastest shipping option. Often I choose a slower option in exchange for a buck or two off a movie rental or something.
I think the service is expensive for just faster shipping, but it’s cheap for a video streaming service. Amazon Prime is a pretty good competitor to Netflix, for less money.
I imagine it’s just like everything else. They don’t have enough people to pick, pack, and deliver the items. I believe the US Postal Service announced they were slowing down deliveries too.
Frank D
I have made a few complaints to AMZ, in the past year, when promises made of 2d prime shipping were seemingly all 5-6-7 days. You will get some excuses, item is not local to you, etc That can happen once in a while, but since AMZ knows all to well where I live their systems should just tell me on the fly. They will issue some credit.
More issues arose. When even the most popular AMZ items were always next week; spoke with them for the third or fourth time, screen shots and product URLs at hand … I told them, we just signed up for Walmart+ ( we did, no fib ), if this does not get sorted, we’re fed up paying for prime two day = order on Monday Tue Wed = next week. They actually promised to flag operations / logistics … and low and behold, within short order, over the summer, things are back to normal. Gotten a few things a day early / next business day even, without a warehouse in the state.
I understand we may be a bit spoiled while they can be completely overwhelmed by orders and there’s a ton of wheels that need to stay greased for the prime 2d convenience to work.
Marc
I got feed up with Prime’s delivery taking 5-7 days. I called (you can call) and complained and asked for a full refund of my Prime membership (I was 4 months into the year) and I got it! Now I just have to make sure I order $25 or more and shipping is free and at the most it seems to take 1 more day then Prime was taking.
On the other hand I have a Prime Credit Card which gives 5% back (3% if you are not a Prime member). I did a rough calculation and the 2% difference basically paid for my Prime membership.
But I also notice that I’m buying a lot less from Amazon.
I think that the membership fee for Prime is more of an incentive to buy then a money maker for Amazon. In my case any way it worked.
-Marc
IndianaJonesy
I’m just waiting for them to introduce a “Prime Plus” subscription to offer 2-day again…for an addition $80 a year or something. I remember when Amazon was so on top of things that they guaranteed 2-day on Prime to the point where they once gave me a whole year free because an order was lost and they had to reship. Now, it seems they either don’t care or aren’t capable of doing any more than a no-return refund as an apology when things don’t show up or are days late. I almost never see one-day anymore and there’s not a hint of 2-day relating to Prime on the website anymore. Disappointing, but maybe Walmart will be the one to pick up the baton (never thought I’d say those words…).
MM
I don’t use Amazon all that much but I haven’t noticed any handling delays on their end. Quite the opposite, actually. I’ve placed orders on a Sunday and had them arrive the next day on Monday. These were orders delivered with USPS, UPS and FedEx, not Uber or doordash or anything like that. In one case I was shocked to find that Amazon had overnighted–at no extra charge to me–a truck differential that weighed right about 70 lbs, and that was on top of the fact that they already had a better price than all the big boys like Summit Racing, 4 Wheel Parts, Randy’s, etc.
That said I have noticed a lot more items being out of stock at Amazon recently.
I certainly have noticed that shipping times have gotten longer with USPS (the post office). So has general incompetence.
Vards Uzvards
In April I ordered a 65-inch TV, and it was delivered by Amazon crew, from Arizona to New Mexico, on the morning of the second day.
MoogleMan3
We’ve had a walmart+ sub for almost a year now and it’s been great. Free grocery deliveries, no delivery minimum, many orders delivered same day (they do this since a nearby store had the item in stock), and since my wife works there, her discount applies to orders we place.
I’ll be resubbing when our current sub expires.
Kizzle
Don’t support Walmart.
Stuart
I get similar emails and DMs about EVERY retailer and most brands.
No politics.
MoogleMan3
Exactly. I wanted to reply about how hypocritical it is to support one company that someone thinks is crappy, yet happily support the thousands of others who would fit the same profile, yesterday, but honestly it’s not worth it.
Bruce
Thank you for the no politics policy. First time commenting, love the site.
Stacey Jones
I ordered a tool from Walmart.com and it said it was delivered about a week later. It wasn’t. I contacted them and they offered a refund, but I said, I’d like the tool instead. They assured me the supplier would contact me in no more than two days. They didn’t. I called back and requested and got the refund. The item came the next day. I reached out and let them know to re-charge me. I probably shouldn’t have after so much hassle. In years of Amazon Prime, I never had this much trouble. Well worth it.
Tom D
I’ve learned to always look for “shipped by Amazon” or Walmart as the case may be. Things shipped by third parties are completely random.
Stuart
I only order from Walmart directly, or on rare occasion Hasbro via their marketplace.
Robbie Stanford
I would say no, your order stayed inside the Walmart logistics network, once you place an order at Home Depot you are at there mercy, once your order is processed and filled by Home Depot it’s is then handed off to a Walmart delivery driver. You have to deal with two logistics networks.
Elmer
Recently ordered something from Home Depot, for some reason it didn’t come from a regional warehouse with free shipping (>$35 ship is free with HD) so I got charged the $8.99. Item arrived 4 hours later,shipped locally from a local store.
Theoretically – if the software nerds (and the company’s management) is actually doing their jobs for real, every inventoried item with its location should be accessible to the system, and a “smart enough” system can determine the best choice: Ship from warehouse, ship from local store, ship UPS/FedEx/USPS, store-owned truck, or Billy Bob’s local courier service, etc. etc.
There are myriad layers to the decision – if it comes from store inventory will a walk-in store sale be missed, what is this particular customer’s “sales value” to the company, what is this particular customer’s delivery time expectations, what’s the value returned by fast delivery versus the cost, etc. etc. etc.
Very highly complicated and not the slightest bit simple because increasing one value degrades others, but that’s why really good business analysts get the big bucks. Unfortunately, too many companies run by “seat of the pants” management rather than data-driven operations engineering.
Stuart
Check your order conformation – if you were charged the express fee at that time, it’s possible the item is only stocked in stores and you missed this at checkout.
An industry friend was ranting to me that they had to pick up a single large order for Packout products at several stores, but all of this is usually made very clear at checkout. Stores can only fulfill orders from their own inventory.
Some items are not stocked outside of stores, or such inventory is locked and is registered as unavailable, and so express delivery is then the only option aside from in-store pickup.
Bobby
First come, first serve. That what-if walk-in. No point missing a sell, to hold out for the walk-in customer that may not show for that last in stock item before resupply.
Jaycob P.
In my experience Home Depot was already one of the better shippers since they were free on a ton of stuff and only 2-3 days where I’m at. About the only companies that would beat them were NAPA and O’Reilly since they are usually overnight shipping. If they get faster I’ll probably order from them even more.
Clay
I was going to post the same thing. I feel like Home Depot delivers faster than any other place I ever order from.
My only complaint, such as it is, is that Home Depot uses boxes that are not ECT rated so if you try to re-use them at UPS, they will not insure them.
This is minor, I just try to reuse boxes rather than recycle them when possible.
MM
I have only ordered from Home Depot once. I wanted to buy three M12 tools to take advantage of a “buy more save more” deal at my local store. The website showed stock, but when I drove up with wallet in hand none of the stock could be found. Between three employees and the Milwaukee rep nobody had any idea where they were. They finally told me their inventory must have been stolen and advised me to order online. I did, tools arrived reasonably fast, I think it was 3 days. No problem, I wasn’t in any rush.
What surprised me was shipping from Ebay sales: Two times now I have purchased a Dewalt cordless tool from an Ebay “authorized reseller”, with free shipping, only to find the tool arriving the next day having been shipped from the local Home Depot but the invoicing mentioning nothing about HD. Phone calls to Dewalt verified the tools were legit and warranties valid.
Jared
Could it be drop-shipping? E.g sometimes sellers are just re-selling products from elsewhere, benefitting from arbitrage.
MM
Could be. I just know Home Depot is involved somehow, and for some reason seem to be shipping their stock for lower prices than they charge in-store at the same time.
Albert
I had that happen a few times. I also tried curb-side pickup with some uncommon plumbing fittings and got wrong items (similar appearance, but different dimensions and different barcodes). Now I use Ship-to-Home whenever possible, especially for power tools, and so far have been satisfied. On multiple occasions I’ve seen HD offer better deals online than in their stores. For example, I’m considering an M18 vacuum. If I buy the one that is in stock at the store, I just get the vacuum. If I order online, I get a free battery.
Hon Cho
Walmart was known for their outstanding use of information technology long before Amazon existed. Sadly for them they didn’t leverage their advantage and Amazon jumped to the forefront in internet retailing.
IF Walmart can leverage their vast footprint of stores around the country with a responsive delivery network then Amazon has every reason to be concerned.
Amazon has 110 active fulfillment centers in the USA, Walmart has 150 hubs as they call them. Walmart has over 4500 stores in the USA. Amazon has about 600 if you include Whole Foods locations. Walmart’s physical footprint stomps Amazon’s.
If it’s something stocked in a Walmart store, then fast delivery should routinely be a piece of cake. The playing field levels quickly between Amazon and Walmart once orders contain items not stocked locally.
(Rant on) Spread your money around to all sorts of retailers. No one retailer deserves your loyalty. If we end up with giants like Amazon and Walmart with 95% of the business we lose. Use cash wherever possible. You may not believe it, but the more information we give retailers only enables them to figure out how to remove more money from your accounts into theirs. Yes, it happens in small increments and “they make it so easy” or “but I get points” or “free streaming service” and other things to make us feel like we’re the ones getting all the benefit but, rest assured, we’re paying for it all. Over time, it’s very real amounts of money. (Rant off)
Lloyd Worley
I’ve had a similar experience. I ordered some snacks and treats from Walmart, to be delivered to my Mom, at her assisted living facility. I met the $35 minimum and was promised free 2 day delivery. When I called Mom later the same day, she was already enjoying her snacks and treats. Apparently, they arrived at the front desk of her facility about 3-4 hours after I placed the order.
Jared
Geez. That is surprising! Especially in the context of a free shipping offer on a $35+ order. I wonder about the economics of this stuff. I’m sure profitability must relate to scale, volume and efficiency – but good grief I wish someone could explain it to me in simple terms I can understand. 😄
It must take a tremendous organization system to make this work. It’s unlikely a person is grabbing your single order, packing it in their car and driving it straight to your house. Instead, I wonder how many people are involved. Like is there fulfillment staff in the Walmart store pulling items from shelves and organizing it into carloads for deliveries in a particular area? Then when a driver shows up, does that person have an app or something directing them where to travel?
When you consider the costs of paying these people to do the work, operate a car, etc, it seems like the process must be very efficient to be able to do it all without a fee – and do it FAST!
I don’t understand how I can order a $2 pack of toothpicks from Amazon with free shipping either. I realize the answer always comes back to the aforementioned “volume, scale, efficiency” explanations – but that seems like a black box that the explanation goes into… and somehow free delivery comes out the other end.
It feels like magic because I simply can’t seem to grasp how all the moving parts work and still make the process profitable.
John E
You just benefited from some poor sap using his/her own vehicle and gas to get your stuff and and skipped Walmart paying for delivery so they can undercut Amazon, who are already undercutting everyone else. Rinse, repeat. Welcome to the future!
MoogleMan3
Some poor sap who is getting paid for using their own vehicle and gas, and made the choice to deliver for walmart.
Jim Felt
I accidentally met a Amazon stickered Mercedes sedan driver looking for my front door to make a delivery last week. Clearly his personal vehicle. Maybe food? Certainly not hard goods.
I can’t explain it either…
DavidG
Similar experience as I once ordered 3 gallons of engine oil with free 2 day delivery for the same price that I usually get it from Amazon. It was delivered for free via either Grubhub or Doordash within 2 hours.
TonyT
For me, Walmart.com works best when ordering stuff that’s in stock at stores (basically, the 2-Day stuff) – those orders have always been delivered on time.
My occasional 3rd party orders with Walmart.com have been OK, but it’s not my favorite place for that.
I’ve done a couple HomeDepot.com free shipping orders, and while I was very happy (they arrived quickly) can’t see how they made money on them – they were shipped FedEx – maybe HD is moving to Amazon because it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than FedEx.
I recently did an OfficeMax.com order (for printer paper mostly, had to add a few extras to get over the $45 min for free delivery), and was very happy – delivered the next day by an OfficeMax van.
Kent Skinner
I’ve had decent customer service from Amazon, and nothing but terrible experiences from Wal*Mart. It’s been bad enough that I gave up on WM, after fighting for a $300 refund *2 months* after I returned an item.
I’m no fan of Amazon, but WM was repeatedly terrible for me. There’s nobody to talk to who can actually do anything about the problem. “Let me transfer you [to somebody else who can’t do anything]” doesn’t help.
Unmesh
The delivery experience seems erratic at best. Amazon (we have Prime) has been reliable in that the stuff gets delivered although increasingly later than promised.
One delivery from Home Depot went missing though their vendor/carrier Ontrac swore it was delivered so HD did not feel any liability and I had the credit card issuer do a charge back. Our house is set back from the street in a way where you can’t see any packages left on our porch and we haven’t had anything go missing in 20 years so make of it what you will. After that, I ask for deliver-to-store or buy elsewhere.
And a recent order from Walmart was delivered in a very flimsy outer box with the adhesive tape barely holding on; fortunately the OEM box inside was very well packaged and the interior contents were pristine.
I will try HD goods via Walmart at least once to see if that works better!
Chris
This is a really timely post. On Monday this week I determined I needed a home office power strip to help me kill power to everything I have running there after checking out the year over year power usage (work from home).
In any case I picked out a desk top Anker unit and saw that this had same day available. Listed as 5-10pm. History has told me that in my area suburban Chicago less than 20 min from a warehouse this usually means after dark. In any case order placed right around noon, a few meetings later I check my phone for missed calls and see that my package has been delivered…..3:15pm……. They delivered in what must have been less than 3 hours.
I have been nothing but happy with my prime membership. I use it for photo storage (free unlimited) and for streaming and have been using the subscription services to get additional discounts of up to 15% on something like 80 subscription items (some only once a year but still) and the shipping is usually at the advertised rate. Whenever possible Ill chose the slower shipping speed to earn the $1 digital credit. I also take advantage of a prime card for 5% cash back.
While I may over order from Amazon…..it’s way better than the over shopping that occurs on family trips to target…..
Now……opinion time…..I’m really concerned that the trend to online shopping and rapid delivery will cut down even more on what is available in B/M when there is even a B/M available…..because for those items you need same day and aren’t offered same day……we will be out of luck.
Marc
I’m gathering from the comments and my own experience that Amazon Prime is working as advertised if you live in the city and/or near a distribution center. But if you live in a rural area (like northern New Hampshire) Prime is nothing like it used to be, barely better than non-prime.
Still I wouldn’t live anywhere else.
Greg
Exactly this. Amazon Prime shipping for the entire Northeast it seems is a game of Russian Roulette now. Let me explain. Say you decide to order a set of Gear Wrench wrenches on a Monday. Amazon Prime right now might say by Friday you’ll get the order, which isn’t two day let alone one day. So you give up on that for today. Tuesday comes around and you check on it again, it might now say free delivery guaranteed by Wednesday. This has been happening to me on almost every order so far regardless of it being a small item, large item, cheap item, or expensive item. I think the shipping schedules of USPS, FedEX, and UPS for the Northeast are in total disarray and that’s how Amazon is handling it, typical Prime delivery time frames when possible but 4-7 days otherwise. There’s basically not consistent fast shipping anymore. I’m not sure why this has changed, as you’d think it would be worse off for other parts of the country?
Neil H
It means you are lucky. They use postmates – and its been awful here. I can’t get groceries delivered same day sometimes. An absolutely horrible experience. Everything is hit or miss unless you are not outsourcing. I can get amazon to deliver construction materials (lights and door knobs) with some good efficiency at a decent time window but not within 2 hours.