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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWal Mart looking to compete with Amazon in home delivery
Wal Mart's twist is that they're not going to pay UPS drivers to do the deliveries
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering a radical plan to have store customers deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to better compete with Amazon.com Inc.
Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world's largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon sometimes known as "crowd-sourcing," or the "sharing economy."
A plethora of start-ups now help people make money by renting out a spare room, a car, or even a cocktail dress, and Wal-Mart would in effect be inviting people to rent out space in their vehicle and their willingness to deliver packages to others.
Such an effort would, however, face numerous legal, regulatory and privacy obstacles, and Wal-Mart executives said it was at an early planning stage.
Wal-Mart is making a big push to ship online orders directly from stores, hoping to cut transportation costs and gain an edge over Amazon and other online retailers, which have no physical store locations. Wal-Mart does this at 25 stores currently, but plans to double that to 50 this year and could expand the program to hundreds of stores in the future.
Wal-Mart currently uses carriers like FedEx Corp for delivery from stores - or, in the case of a same-day delivery service called Walmart To Go that is being tested in five metro areas, its own delivery trucks.
"I see a path to where this is crowd-sourced," Joel Anderson, chief executive of Walmart.com in the United States, said in a recent interview with Reuters.
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In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)madokie
(51,076 posts)I don't do Amazon but
greatauntoftriplets
(175,729 posts)what incentive would customers have to deliver packages to other people? I imagine that WalMart charges for delivery. Will they just pocket that while some poor sap burns gas to deliver the package.
Dumb idea, as is pointed out in the article.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)like the people you see collecting pallets or aluminum cans, they get paid for those pallets and cans. Wal Mart wants to have that labor model compete with UPS's.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Amazon is likely responsible for more unemployment than Wal-Mart (they took down Borders, ferschissakes) has even less community involvement, and treats its employees and vendors like shit. But all this is invisible to its happy customers who would never set foot in a Wal-Mart.
Life Long Dem
(8,582 posts)I'll take a printer/scanner with some pepperoni to go please.
Teamster Jeff
(1,598 posts)so that they can clean the store while they shop.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)Sure, I'll eat that food that John Q. Whoever-the-fuck just brought to my door.