E-Commerce has simplified and bubbled down the dreadful trip to the grocery store to a simple scroll through the app and not even needing to pull out your wallet. This simple process is the mask to an intricate system of hands and coolers to prepare your order to make the user’s life easier.

The moment that your order is placed it is put into three categories; frozen, chilled and nonperishable. Every order is placed in these three large lists that have upwards of 2,500 items on it for the day. The pickers are designated to one category and shop throughout the store to put together orders.

“Our pickers easily walk 5 miles a day to put together orders,” said Assistant Manager of ECommerce Lavina Woodfin.

Pickers who pull frozen and chilled food especially get their steps in because of Walmart shopping code. When a frozen or chilled item is picked from the self, the picker has only a 30-minute window to get all the items in the cart and back to the ECommerce frozen and chilled freezer before it is no longer viable for the customer.

When the user is two minutes away from the store the picker will pull the frozen and chilled items out of the coolers and freezers and place those items with the rest of the order.

The second half of the job is a dispenser. The dispenser is the person who is designated to bring out the groceries and load them into the vehicle as well as to go over any substitutions. At this point, the user can accept or decline any changes that were made. At both Walmart and Kroger, the users can choose which items can be substituted for, and any substitutes are made up, and no additional charge is placed.

For example, if a user orders a half gallon of 2% milk and they do not have that they will upgrade you for no additional charge to a gallon of 2% milk.

This is the standard process for both Walmart and Kroger.

For Kroger, Joseph Mangrum Kroger e-commerce Manager, in particular, if you want one gallon of BlueBell Homemade Vanilla ice cream and they have a program that would generate the next best for options if they were out of this particular option

The two main differences between Walmart and Kroger is pickup fees and monetary minimums of orders. Kroger has a $4.95 pickup fee attached to all orders as opposed to the free pickup at Walmart. Walmart on the other hand has a $30 order minimum as opposed to Kroger not having a minimum.

“It is not hard to reach our $30 minimum because once you grab a box of tampons, a bottle of shampoo, and a few groceries you’ve hit that mark,” said Woodfin.

This service is especially helpful for students who use their parents or guardians credit cards for living expenses.

“Even though we are a college town, it is against company policy to take someones credit card number over the phone or through a picture being an obstacle for college students,” said Department Manager of ECommerce Kandace White.

“I like it because it’s quick and I don’t have time to go pick out stuff most of the time and my mom pays for it,” said student Madison Wawrek.

Through the app they can save the card as a payment method and use it to get groceries and other household items.

Instacart is another option for online grocery shopping. It is a third party grocery delivery service, that shops for the items and delivers them to your door. Student Makenna Adams says she prefers to use this because it delivers directly to her door rather than getting out to pick up her groceries.

“It keeps me from buying unnecessary things I see on my way to get what I came for,” said student Alise McCreary.

Krogers Oxford locations plan for expansion is set to finish by the end of 2020. The expansion will bring additional grocery shopping methods and allow for more online shopping orders.