Now here’s a cool new service Walmart offers that I was happy to try out as part of the Walmart Moms program-Pick Up Today.
It’s a neat idea–how would you like to be able to go online, choose and pay for an item, then swing by later that day (or send the spouse!) and pick it up quickly and easily at the customer service desk?!?
I especially like the idea because I work from a home office and Yankee Bill is the one who is in Binghamton every day for work. I frequently have him pick things up for me on the way home from work, and Pick Up Today would make that shopping even easier!
Walmart gave me $30 to try out the service. . . but what we really needed was a new bicycle for Princess. That girl grew over the winter! No problem, I just made up the difference in cost myself.
Princess and I went online to find a bike that she would like.
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First we searched for “Girls 20 bike” (for a 20 inch girls bike). That brought up 70 bikes. But if you look at the 2nd tab (which I helpfully have circled) you can see that it says “In My Store, Johnson City (12)”. That means that there are possibly 12 bikes that I could purchase using the Pick Up Today feature.
Does that mean that they only have twelve 20 inch girls bikes at my Walmart? Probably not. The system is new, so only certain items are available. There could be more bikes. There could also be items that you search for and don’t see listed in the “my store” tab, but that you see when you go into the store. Over time they plan to make this much, much more complete.
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Next we clicked through to a bike that Princess really liked. Under the shipment methods “Pick Up Today” was clearly listed, so I checked that off, then hit “add to cart”.
Note: There were some items that appeared on the “In My Store” tab but then when you clicked on them, Pick Up Today was not listed as an option. Just warning you so you won’t be frustrated. Or at least AS frustrated.
I also want to point out that up on the top bar, the entire time you are at Walmart.com, you can always change your choice of store. You can also change it down in the shipment section. Since I have 3 Walmarts in easy driving distance, it’s a good thing to be able to switch back and forth depending on which one I’ll be closest to-also to check and see if they have different items on hand.
But back to the Pick Up Today process. Once I added the bike to my cart I went to my cart to ensure everything was in order.
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Pick Up Today was listed as the shipment method. Everything looked good so I proceeded to checkout. First it had me log in (you can either log in or check out as a guest-I have an account so I logged in).
Next it confirmed my delivery method-this screen was pretty specific.
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That sounded good so I hit continue. It then gave me the option to receive my confirmation by email or by text message. I choose email and entered my husband’s work email address (since he was the one picking up the bike after work)
NOTE: Once you chose, you cannot go back and change this option. The person picking up the item has to either have a physical copy of the email (for the bar code) or the text message on their cell phone-so don’t choose email and then expect your spouse to pick the item up if they can’t get to a printer 
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The final screen repeated the directions back to me. Wait till you get an email, then you are ready to print it out and head on in to the store.
My store was really on it–although they had 4 hours to get back to me, within 30 minutes my husband got an email:
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He printed it out and swung by the store after work. He said the process was super easy-he walked up to the customer service counter, showed the email, they scanned the bar code, got the bike and gave it to him along with a receipt. It took less than 10 minutes.
I really like this service. I can see using it for things like birthday presents for parties the kids get invited to. Christmas shopping. Things where hubs doesn’t feel comfortable doing the picking out part (what DO you get for an 8 yr old kid you don’t really know?). The biggest problem right now is that the database isn’t very complete. But as time goes on that will change-so it’s worth a shot to check online and see if there is “Pick Up Today” available on the items you need.
****This is a sponsored post****
Disclosure: This is a sponsored review I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting, I didn’t know Wal-Mart offered this service. It makes sense though. I always knew that there were companies whose sole function was to go shop for people, but I don’t know why I never thought of a service like this… I’m usually pretty good at coming up with and/or modifying ideas to fill needs of consumers.
Ross-it’s a new service-which is why they want us to get the word out. Right now the number of items offered in each store is kind if limited-but it will improve with time
That seems like a really great service – if only it included groceries and HBA! However, I am concerned that the growing services that require going to the customer service counter. At the 2 walmarts in our area, you can sometimes wait up to an 30 minutes to meet with a customer service person! That is not even at peak return times (ie, after Christmas). I hope they realize that these great services need to be supported with more customer service registers and the staff to go with them.
Catherine & cksknitter — Great feedback. When we tried the service, hubs was in and out in a flash. It never even occurred to me that some folks might have a really slow customer service area. I have forwarded your comments on to my contact at Walmart so that he can let the team in charge of Pick Up Today know that this is an issue.
Ok, here is the response from Walmart:
Customer wait time for Pick Up Today is definitely something that we’re tracking and working to minimize. Also, it’s worth clarifying that Pick Up Today doesn’t use the customer service area – it uses the Walmart.com services area. This is the same place as where they would pick up their Site to Store purchases and (sometimes) their photo center.
From a personal perspective-hubs said he DID got to the “photo pickup” area, which is right next to customer service in our store, and he had to ring a buzzer than the customer service person from the next desk came over.
This sounds so convenient, but I agree with Catherine. The customer service counter at all of my local Walmarts handle check cashing, money wiring, and returns. It easily takes 30 minutes or more to make a return when there are only one or two customers ahead of me because the associates are always having trouble with the money wiring service. There should be separate lanes for each type of transaction and they should all have well trained associates. Unfortunately, I would never use this new service because I know how poorly the Walmart customer service counter operates.
Ok, I hope they offer this. Walmart is right on my husband’s way home from work and it would be awesome if it shows up here. . . and works as intended.