Walmart recruits robots in online grocery battle with Amazon

Walmart unveiled the Alphabot, an automated, 20,000-square-foot warehouse that could make its grocery pickup service faster and more efficient. Alphabot’s robotic carts quickly retrieve items and deliver them to employees at a picking station, who then pack and deliver the order to customers’ cars in the parking lot. — Walmart

Hidden behind a store in southern New Hampshire, Walmart Inc’s latest weapon in its food fight against Amazon.com Inc is now fully operational.

The nation’s biggest grocer on Jan 8 unveiled the Alphabot, an automated, 20,000-square-foot warehouse that could make its grocery pickup service faster and more efficient. Alphabot’s robotic carts quickly retrieve items and deliver them to employees at a picking station, who then pack and deliver the order to customers’ cars in the parking lot. Retailers call the process micro-fulfillment, and some analysts say it’s the most promising technology to hit food retail in years.