Walmart Expands Grocery Delivery In Battle With Amazon

In a fight to stay in the game with Amazon — which just launched free Whole Foods delivery to Prime customers — Walmart will expand its own grocery delivery service to more than 40 percent of U.S. households by the end of 2018. The platform, which is currently available in only six markets, is slated to spread to 100 metro areas nationwide.

To use the service, customers must pay a fee of $9.95 per use on a non-subscription basis and make orders of $30 or more. The delivery fee will be nixed for first-time customers with the promo code: FRESHCAR.

"We're saving customers time by leveraging new technology, and connecting all the parts of our business into a single seamless shopping experience: great stores, easy pickup, fast delivery, and apps and websites that are simple to use," Walmart U.S. president and CEO Greg Foran said in a release. "We're serving our customers in ways that no one else can. Using our size and scale, we're bringing the best of Walmart to customers across the country."

Items eligible for same-day and future deliveries include produce, meat, seafood, baked goods, pantry essentials, and seasonal merchandise. Customers can place their orders on Walmart.com or through the Walmart Grocery App.

The retailer is also growing its Online Grocery Pickup service, in which shoppers select what they need online and swoop by the store to stock up without even getting out of their cars. The offering is currently available in 1,200 stores and is expected to be implemented in 1,000 more this year.

Walmart also recently announced new meal kits, but unlike its new grocery service, these quick-prep packages will only be available for in-store pickup. A vast array of fresh-daily meal options include steak Dijon, basic garlic chicken, sweet chili chicken stir fry, and pork Florentine; Thai curry chicken and chicken fried rice rotisserie meals; and one-step heat-up chicken Alfredo, cheesy ravioli, meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken parmesan, pulled beef, curry chicken, pot roast, and chicken enchiladas.

If you don't want to make dinner tonight but you've had a little too much pizza and Chinese, check out these 15 healthy meals you didn't know you could have delivered.