Grocery isle with shopping cart

Save With Walmart Grocery Pickup

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links. If you purchase any goods or service through one of these links I may earn a small commission, this is at no extra cost to you. 

There are lots of ways to save on groceries, but one of my favorite money saving tips for groceries is using the Walmart Grocery Pickup service.  

I know some of you have an aversion to Walmart. The stores are often chaotic, the shelves are sometimes not stocked, and the Black Friday stories leave some wanting to run for the hills in July!  But the Walmart Grocery Pickup service is so convenient, and has so many benefits, it’s hard to resist.

Get $10 off your first order through Walmart Grocery Pickup using my referral link.

How does it work?

Walmart Grocery Pickup is so easy to use. All you have to do is shop for your groceries through grocery.walmart.com or via the Walmart Grocery app. Make sure you select your pickup location to get accurate availability. When you find something you want, add it to your cart.  

There is a minimum order of $30, which isn’t hard to meet, and there is no fee for the service.  

Fill up your cart with food, cleaning supplies, pet supplies, household items and more.  Select a pickup day and time that works for you. Enter your payment information, confirm and submit your order. Easy enough?

Walmart employees will pick and bag your items. You will get a text or notification from the app when your order is ready. For me, this is usually 15 minutes before my scheduled pickup time, but occasionally it has been as late as the scheduled pickup time.  

Use the app to check-in when you’re on your way so the order will be ready when you arrive.  When you arrive, park in the designated pickup area. Enter the space number and vehicle color on the app and wait for the Walmart employee to bring your order out.  

The Walmart employee will notify you of any substitutions, you will sign for your order and then they will load your purchases into your car. You don’t even have to get out of the car! And just like that, voila! Grocery Shopping done – CHECK! If you didn’t know, I’m a HUGE Friends fan…Traditional English Trifle anyone? No? Oh well…back to the regularly scheduled programming.  

They are not allowed to accept tips, so don’t worry about that.

If you forgot something, you are able to add items to your order after it’s placed for a limited amount of time, which they will tell you when you place your order. If you want to cancel, or reject an item that was picked, you can do that when they bring the stuff to your car.

If you’re late for your Walmart Grocery pickup, they will call you. I got sick one time between when I placed my order and my scheduled pickup time and couldn’t pick up my order as scheduled. They called me and I told them what happened and they held the order until the next day for me.

At first, Walmart Grocery Pickup was only available in select stores. Luckily for me, that included one local store in my area. It has since expanded and now includes almost every Walmart store near me. At most stores the hours are 7 days a week from 8 am to 8 pm. 

When you schedule your pickup, the calendar will tell you if there are less busy pickup times. I’ve only had a problem with this one time, the night before we were supposed to get a big winter storm. Every pickup spot had at least 1 vehicle waiting, and some had 2.  It took about 20 minutes for them to bring my order out, which was the longest ever. It is usually 5-10 minutes at my store. I have heard that they will re-schedule pickup if there is going to be a major weather event, so perhaps that happened here. I don’t know if they do that at all stores, or just our local Walmart.

How Walmart Grocery Pickup Saves Money

I resisted using this service for a long time and honestly I don’t even remember why now. It’s so convenient, not only does it save time, it saves a ton of money!  

If you want to try the pickup service today, use my referral link and save $10 on your first order.

1. Reduce Impluse Shopping

You don’t have to go into the store, so you won’t get distracted from your list and end up with a $200 grocery bill when all you needed were milk, bread and lunch meat. There’s no wandering around picking up impulse items along the way, like a new rug for the kitchen, new sweater for the dog, or a new pair of shoes off the clearance rack. Sure, you can find some of those things in the app, but it’s not right in front of your face quite so easily.

You have to plan your shopping, and planning is one of the best ways to save money period.

2. Substitutes

This might be my favorite perk of the Walmart Grocery Pickup service – aside from the not having to do the grocery shopping part, of course!  

If something is out of stock on the shelves after you’ve placed your order, they will try to substitute it with something comparable, for the same price. Often times they will substitute a larger item, or brand name, for the same price.

For example, last week I ordered the Great Value Sweet & Salty Chewy Granola Bars Peanut 1.23 oz 6 Count for $1.43. They were out so they substituted the 14.8 oz 12 count for the same price, normally $2.84. That’s a savings of 50%!  You don’t get that if you shop in the store!

Of course you have the option to tell them you do not want substitutions on certain items, or the whole order, if you don’t want to take advantage of this. There are some instances where I do this. My cats will only eat a certain brand, flavor and style of canned food so I always request no substitutions on that.  

3. Goodbye Tantrums

This is a big one if you have little mouths to feed at home. When you have to take your kids to the grocery store it can become a nightmare. Walking down the isles is like going through the gauntlet with the sugary cereals and candy isles, and every time you give in, that’s money spent on something that wasn’t on your list.  

No more begging for toys they’ll only play with once, or that box of sugar cereal that will have them bouncing off the walls in 10 minutes, or the dreaded candy in the checkout lane. You don’t even have to get them out of the car and schlep them inside.

4. Less Waste

You’re walking around the store trying to remember if the lettuce in the fridge is still any good. So you buy more. When you get home you find the lettuce is just fine. Now you have so much, there’s no way you’ll use it all up, so some of it will eventually go in the trash. That’s money wasted.   

As you’re planning your weekly menu, check your fridge and pantry. Simply add the items you need to your shopping cart as you go along. No more forgetting what you have, or buying duplicates because you forgot what you have.  

If you aren’t making a weekly or monthly menu, then you need to. This is absolutely a must for saving money on groceries, and saves your sanity to boot.

5. Convenient shopping cart

This one goes along with reason number 4. When you run out of something during the week, add it to your cart right then and there. This reduces the chance of forgetting it and having to run to the convenience store mid-week for a more expensive version.  

Plus the app is on your phone, so you always have it with you. If you think of something when you’re out and about, you can add it right away before you forget. You don’t have to remember to write it down and then combine multiple lists later on.

Apple users can now use Siri to add items your Walmart Grocery cart. Just say “Hey Siri, add to Walmart Grocery” and list the items. You don’t even need to list a specific item, the system will use past orders and user history.  

6. Comparison Shopping

The Walmart Grocery Pickup app is a great tool for comparing prices when shopping other stores or looking at the weekly sale flyers. Say you’re at Hannaford and they have Bounty napkins on sale, but you’re not quite sure if that’s a good price.  Just hop on over to the Walmart Grocery app and check.  

The app has a UPC scanning tool to search for an item if you’re in the store. Just scan it and if Walmart has the same item and size it will come up. If not, you can also manually search for the item. All of the prices in the app are noted per each, per ounce or per pound, which makes comparison shopping really simple.   

And while you’re there, if you need them, drop it in your cart so you don’t forget.

Nothing is Perfect…

And Walmart Grocery Pickup is no different.  

As of this publication, you can’t pay with cash, which means you can’t use your cash envelope system for Walmart Grocery Pickup.  

They don’t accept coupons, at least not yet. If you’re a big coupon clipper, which I am not, then this service might not be for you.

Not everything is available for purchase through the app.  Alcohol, clothing, some sporting goods are items I’ve discovered I have to go into the store for.

Give Walmart Grocery Pickup A Try

I used to shop several different stores each week. Since I’ve switched to the Walmart Grocery Pickup service, even though some items are slightly more at Walmart then at Aldi, it doesn’t amount to much. But by not going into the store, and from substitutions, I’m saving so much more. Now I only go to another grocery store occasionally when there’s a specific item that Walmart doesn’t carry, like Nabisco chocolate wafers that I use to make this dessert that my in-laws have dubbed “Lisa’s Lo

Have you used any grocery pickup services? Leave a comment below and let me know which ones and how you like it. If not, start saving today, use my referral link to save $10 on your first order.

Check out these other posts you might enjoy!

Follow us on Pinterest!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *