Did you know Walmart is the largest grocer here in the United States? It’s true; our best-selling item in the U.S. is bananas, and more than 140 million Americans visit us each week to stock up their pantry and pick up some other items along the way.
We’ve been giving a lot of thought to how we can use technology to improve the grocery shopping experience for our customers. Of course, we’re already big and early adopters of technology, from our vaunted supply chain that helps drive our low prices to our web and mobile experiences that assist shoppers in planning their trips and making the most of their visits. But despite our accomplishments, our vision for the future is much bigger than what we’ve done so far.
Along these lines, we’ve recently launched a small Walmart To Go grocery delivery pilot in the San Francisco/San Jose and Denver areas for shoppers to explore how our technology can help our customers save time as well as money, either by having their grocery orders delivered to their homes or ready for quick pick-up at participating stores for free.
I’m pleased to announce another step we’re making in our journey to renovate the shopping experience: @WalmartLabs is acquiring Yumprint, an exciting start-up in the recipes and meal planning space. Yumprint founders Chris Crittenden and Wes Dyer had a vision for how technology can improve the way all of us discover and prepare our meals. Their website, iPhone app and browser extension are among the ideas they’ve brought to food lovers, helping them discover, search and save recipes from any website.
Chris and Wes’s ideas and ambitions for transforming the grocery shopping experience match the global opportunity Walmart enjoys in this space, and their accomplishments with Yumprint just scratch the surface of what we’re going to do next together.
Welcome to the ‘Labs, Wes and Chris. More than 140 million Americans can’t wait to see what you help us introduce next.
This post originally appeared on The @WalmartLabs Blog.