Walmart Is Opening Dozens of Local Fulfillment Centers Staffed by Robots
These small, automated warehouses integrated into Walmart stores make order picking much faster.
Walmart is set to expand the number of local fulfillment centers (LFC) it has in operation across the US in response to demand for pickup and delivery orders.

An LFC is described as a "compact, modular warehouse built within, or added to, a store." Unlike the main stores, these centers are staffed by robots who are tasked with bringing items to picking workstations, where an associate can add them to an order much more quickly than if they had gone around locating the items themselves.
The items stored within an LFC range from fresh and frozen produce to thousands of frequently purchased goods across all categories. And although the robots pick most items, Walmart says personal shoppers handpick "fresh items like produce, meat, and seafood" from the sales floor.
The first LFC opened in Salem, New Hampshire, back in late 2019, and Walmart found it cut the whole process of order picking down to a few minutes, allowing for pickup or delivery within an hour. The new locations adding an LFC will either install them inside the existing store or add them on to the side. Walmart is also planning to open automated pickup points at some stores for "drive up, scan a code, grab" customer collections.
We don't know which of Walmart's nearly 5,000 stores are getting an LFC yet, but "dozens" are planned. If they turn out to be as successful as the Salem LFC, I'm sure that could quickly turn into hundreds.
Entrepreneur Editors' Picks
-
These Co-Founders Are Using 'Quiet Confidence' to Flip the Script on Cutthroat Startup Culture and Make Their Mark on a $46 Billion Industry
-
My 7-Year-Old Daughter Started Selling Eggs. Here's What She Taught Me About Running a Startup.
-
Why You Need to Become an Inclusive Leader (and How to Do It)
-
Career Transitions You Can Make in Your 40s and 50s
-
Billionaire Naveen Jain Is an Expert at Disrupting Fields He Has No Experience In. His Secret Sauce for Building Multi-Million Dollar Companies? 'You Have to Come as Naive.'
-
4 Principles to Develop Next-Level Leadership at Your Company
-
This Filipino American Founder Is Disrupting the Beverage Aisle by Introducing New Flavors to the Crowded Bubbly Water Market