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Walmart (WMT) is holding its annual “Associate and Shareholder Celebration,” which Yahoo Finance is exclusively streaming live on Friday, June 7.
The event will draw about 15,000 investors and employees including about 10,000 Walmart associates. Among those associates will be about 1,000 from outside the US. The audience will hear from senior management, listen to live music, and celebrate the associates.
Walmart employs 2.2 million associates around the world including 26 countries besides the US, making it the world’s third largest employer behind the U.S. Department of Defense and the Chinese Army.
Groceries delivered to your refrigerator
Just before the meeting, Walmart announced it would start delivering groceries all the way to the customers’ refrigerators.
“What if we put their groceries away inside their kitchens or garages?” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon asked. “Imagine keeping homes in stock like we do stores.”
Dubbed InHome Delivery, the service starts this fall in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Vero Beach, covering a population of nearly 1 million customers.
“We’ll learn, and scale from there,” McMillon added.
Walmart is the 800 lb gorilla in the grocery business, famously selling a whopping one billion pounds of bananas a day.
The shift to selling groceries online has been a challenge for retailers who continue to struggle with the “last mile” were food that should be refrigerated isn’t refrigerated.
The idea of having a stranger in your home may be disconcerting, but Walmart has an answer for that: a wearable camera. The delivery person will wear a camera on their chest that acts as a “physical check.” The customer can watch remotely as the order is placed in the refrigerator, and they also get access to a replay.
“We think this is a great extension of what we are already doing for same-day grocery pickup and same-day grocery delivery,” Lore said.
“Increase the minimum wage”
Things actually kicked off on Wednesday with Walmart’s annual shareholders’ meeting where, among other things, CEO Doug McMillon called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage.
“It's clear by our actions and those of other companies that the federal minimum wage is lagging behind. $7.25 is too low,” McMillon said.
“It's time for Congress to put a thoughtful plan in place to increase the minimum wage,” he added. “Any plan should take into account phasing and cost of living differences to avoid unintended consequences."
Also at the meeting was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who criticized the company’s executive compensation and stock buyback practices.