Wal-Mart launches online grocery service locally

Wal-Mart has launched online grocery shopping at its stores in Cedar Rapids and Marion, offering delivery to a customer's vehicle when they arrive for pickup.

Wal-Mart's online grocery pickup service offers 30,000 items, including fresh meat, dairy and produce. Other top items selected by grocery pickup shoppers include after school snacks, diapers and large dog food bags.

The items are priced the same as shoppers would find them in a Wal-Mart store.

The free service is offered at the Cedar Rapids Wal-Mart Supercenters at 2645 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE and 3601 29th Ave. SW and the Marion Wal-Mart Supercenter at 5491 Highway 151.

To use the service, customers visit www.walmart.com/grocery online or through the Wal-Mart Grocery mobile app, enter their Zip code to select a local store and begin creating a shopping list. During checkout, they select a time to pick up their order.

Personal grocery shoppers select the produce, meats and other items requested by the customer.

When a customer arrives at the pickup location, there will be reserved parking spaces marked in orange and a designated phone number to call to alert a Wal-Mart associate.

An associate will retrieve the prepared order and load it into the customer's car.

'Our customers have told us that grocery pick up is a game changer,” said Cynthia Owens, Wal-Mart's e-commerce market coach, in a news release. 'They are able to complete their grocery shopping in a matter of minutes - between errands or on their way home from an after school activity - without unbuckling their seat belts.”

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart says 90 percent of its online grocery customers are repeat users and more than 90 percent of its baskets include fresh grocery items.

West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee Food Stores launched its online grocery shopping service in 2015. The company offers free pickup at its stores or home delivery for a fee on orders under $100.

Hy-Vee offers free delivery for grocery orders over $100.