New pickup option comes to Dinuba Walmart

DINUBA, Calif. (KFSN) -- It is the first thing you will notice when you walk into the Walmart Supercenter in Dinuba. A 16-foot tall, orange pickup tower sitting near the entrance of the store.

"Everybody's question is, what is that tower?" said Lewis Segura, e-commerce assistant manager.

It is the newest piece of technology being used by the retail company to save shoppers time. It looks intimidating, but as Segura explains it is pretty simple to use. You order and pay online, and when it is ready you get a message with a barcode.

"A customer comes into the store, they simply walk up to the tower, it opens up for them, they scan their barcode and within seconds you have your package," he said.

Almost anything can be picked up at the tower, If it is too big it can be stored in a locker that opens when you scan your barcode. Items are loaded by employees. There are some limitations, perishable items like groceries and age-restricted products like medications cannot be picked up. The Dinuba store was chosen for two reasons; The store is a training center for all Walmart employees in the Central Valley and it's one of the busiest in all of California.

"Top five in the Central Valley, top 100 in the company it is a very busy store," said Robert Davis, Dinuba store manager.

At the moment the Dinuba location is the only local store with a pickup tower. Davis said, this year the company plans to install towers in 1,000 different locations.