The largest American retail chain Walmart Inc. plans to open five automated distribution centers for storing products across the country, writes CNBC .
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Walmart plans to open new distribution centers as part of a program to modernize its supply chain and expand capabilities to keep up with customers' online orders. It is known that the average area of new premises will be about 700 thousand square feet (65 thousand square meters). The cooling and freezing areas will feature automated storage and retrieval systems for perishables such as strawberries or chicken nuggets.
Last quarter, curbside pickup and delivery accounted for 22% of the company's U.S. e-commerce growth. According to Walmart's executive vice president of supply chain Dave Guggin , automation allows the company not only to get a more accurate picture of inventory, but also to deliver products to stores faster.
“We know what we have, in what quantity and where it is, and all this in almost real time,” he emphasized.
Since the beginning of the year, Walmart's capitalization has grown by almost 33% (to $561 billion).
Walmart has cut hundreds of jobs