Walmart Turns Attention to High-Tech Perishable Distribution Centers
The new construction projects, expansions and upgrades reflect advances in automation and Walmart’s ever-growing business. “That’s why we’re adding state-of-the-art tech to our facilities: to enable greater speed and capacity that allows us to serve customers even more reliably. For example, these high-tech DCs can store double the number of cases and process more than twice the volume of a traditional perishable DC, more than doubling the number of cases processed per hour,” Guggina pointed out.
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Ultimately, he added, automation speeds the business and reduces physical demands on workers. For example, technology allows associates who previously stacked cases to shift to a role operating equipment and potentially moving up to manager positions.
Each week, about 240 million customers and members visit Walmart’s approximately 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company employs approximately 2.1 million associates worldwide. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named Walmart one of its Retailers of the Century.