Shoppers at the Walmart on Highway 54 can now drop a package, print a banner, or process a return without leaving the store — a FedEx Office location has opened inside the building at 2717 Hwy 54, according to FedEx.
The shop offers FedEx packing and shipping services alongside full-service and self-service printing for signs, banners, business cards, flyers, and brochures, according to FedEx.
The location is one piece of a much larger expansion. Walmart and FedEx announced at the ShopTalk conference in Las Vegas that FedEx Office shops will be operating inside 500 Walmart stores within two years, following a pilot program in roughly 47 to 50 locations across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Texas, and Colorado, according to CNBC and Retail Dive.
We gravitated toward Walmart because they have this fantastic physical infrastructure. We are already great partners with Walmart on the transportation side, so it was natural for us to talk about a store-within-a-store format.— Brian Philips, CEO of FedEx Office
For local shoppers, the practical upside goes beyond printing. Customers can have packages held at the FedEx Office location for up to five business days — an option that can sidestep the 'porch pirate' problem for people who aren't home during delivery windows, according to CNBC. Returns can also be processed on-site, with FedEx consolidating them for bulk shipment back to retailers.
The pilot program also surfaced a less obvious use case: salespeople using the in-store locations to hold inventory throughout the week rather than storing boxes in their vehicles between deliveries, according to CNBC. FedEx CEO Philips cited a medical-device company as one example.
It's a lot more efficient to consolidate one single delivery to or from a FedEx Office location than it is to make a dozen ... residential deliveries.— Brian Philips, CEO of FedEx Office
Walmart's own customer research pointed toward this kind of addition. The retailer surveyed shoppers and found that packaging and shipping were the services they most wanted that weren't already available in stores, according to CNBC.
Our busy customers view our stores as a one-stop-shop for all the products and services they are looking for.— Daniel Eckert, Senior Vice President of Walmart Services and Digital Acceleration
The partnership is also a competitive move for both companies. Walmart and FedEx are each navigating Amazon's growing reach — Amazon has placed pickup lockers inside Whole Foods stores, and has been building out its own delivery infrastructure. During the pilot, FedEx found that customers were frequently shopping Walmart after visiting the FedEx counter, boosting foot traffic for the retailer, according to CNBC.
FedEx already has pickup and drop-off locations inside Office Depot, Walgreens, Kroger, and Albertsons. The Walmart rollout represents one of FedEx's most aggressive retail expansions yet, according to FedEx Office CEO Brian Philips, as reported by CNBC. Each shop runs between 450 and 750 square feet, staffed by FedEx employees.
Why it matters — Shoppers at the Hwy 54 Walmart can now ship, print, and handle returns in one stop — and the arrangement signals how major retailers are reshaping physical stores to compete with Amazon's convenience.
Reported by fedex.com, washingtonpost.com, cnbc.com, retaildive.com
Where this comes from
Written by Papalocal's AI from these outlets' reporting. It can miss or misread things; the outlets are the record.