• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 10, 2018

Walmart just announced a new deal that puts its fledgling grocery delivery service into hyperdrive, giving it the capability to reach 40% of U.S. food shoppers. And some observers think it’s an arrangement that may tempt Walmart’s customers to finally give online food shopping a shot.

The retailer’s new deal with Postmates, the home delivery service, is set to kick off in Charlotte, N.C., and that is putting employees through a three-week personal shopping program. It will charge $9.95, with a minimum order of $30, and will soon roll out to other markets. Postmates has some 160,000 couriers.

Walmart’s announcement comes as online grocery shopping offerings explode, not just stepped-up efforts by Amazon and its Whole Foods Market and delivery services like Peapod, but also by increasingly adept conventional grocers.

But Walmart customers have been reluctant. Magid's Retail Pulse study finds that just 10% of Walmart customers are frequent buyers of groceries online, compared to a 12% national average. Shoppers at other chains are much more enthusiastic, including 31% of Whole Foods customers, and 19% at Target.

Walmart’s decision to give its personal shoppers three weeks of training in how to pinch peaches, sniff pork chops and select perfectly ripe bananas may make the difference, writes Matt Sargent, Magid’s senior vice president of retail.

 “With this partnership and its continued rollout of its ‘personal shoppers,’ Walmart is attempting to address one of the specific pain points of grocery delivery; the inability to pick your own produce and meats,” he says, and 68% of Walmart customers say that the ability to touch and feel food items is important to them.

He thinks chains with sales associates people find epically trustworthy, including Trader Joe's, Publix, Hy-Vee and Whole Foods, may benefit from Walmart’s efforts. 

Walmart has been testing numerous omnichannel initiatives, including an Online Grocery Pickup service, which lets shoppers stay in their cars, in some 1,200 stores. It now says it will roll that service out to 1,000 more locations this year.

Separately, the Bentonville, Ark.-based chain also just kicked off its annual hunger drive, a partnership with Feeding America’s 200 local food banks, doubling its meal goal to 200 million meals. It’s also uniting Nextdoor, the social networking site, to get communities talking about the local impact of food insecurity.

Walmart says it is starting this year’s effort with a $1.5 million donation, and intends to give a total of $3 million, based on consumer’s engagement with social media for the “Fight Hunger. Spark Change” campaign.

And since we’re rounding up all the Walmart news, we’d be remiss if we didn’t share the latest about 11-year-old Mason Ramsey, whose numerous Walmart yodeling performances just vaulted him to “The Ellen Show,” the Grand Ole Opry, a Walmart Facebook concert and a $15,000 scholarship. “Lovesick Blues,” indeed.