How To Get A Walmart Grocery Order Spot Every Single Time!
These are crazy times we are living in, unprecedented times really. The Coronavirus pandemic is unlike anything I, and most everyone, has ever experienced. Most of us are trying to do the best job we can at practicing proper social distancing, staying safe and flattening the curve. One of the main ways to accomplish that is to stay out of the few stores that are still open. But we still need food so how can we avoid it? That is where grocery pick up and delivery has been key. That is if you can get a spot. So many of the posts I see on social media are people saying that they are unable to get an Amazon Fresh order, an Instacart delivery or a Walmart Grocery pickup order. Well I can help you with one of those. I can tell you how to get a Walmart Grocery order spot every single time, without fail.
Get $10 Off Your First Walmart Grocery Pick Up Order
What Is Walmart Grocery Pick Up
First I wanted to give a quick overview of what Walmart Grocery pick up is and how it works. I gave a more detailed review of the process previously but I can give a quick overview here. Walmart Grocery allows you to put together a grocery order online. You search for and select exactly what you want. Then a Walmart employee goes through the store and builds your order. You can place this order online or via their Walmart Grocery app.
When you first open the app or website you can check the Walmart store you want and select from the times available. You should first select your pick up time and then create your order and pay. You have until 1:45 AM the day of your delivery to make any adjustments needed to the order. Walmart Grocery will then alert you to any substitutions or items they couldn’t fill shortly before your delivery. You can refuse any substitutions once you get to the store but they usually are more expensive options so I almost always keep them. If the substitution is less expensive they make that adjustment too but they will never charge you more.
When it is your pick up time you check in online or via the Walmart Grocery app and drive to the store. Once there select the numbered parking spot and the color of your car in the app. Although I don’t think they normally get this info for whatever reason.
The Walmart Grocery employees are practicing social distancing right now so they make this a hands free experience. When they approach with my order I crack my window slightly to confirm my substitutions etc. and they sign for me so I don’t have to touch the handheld. Then they open up the back of the car and load in the groceries and we are on our way. It is pretty slick and about as risk reducing as you can get. I will give some more pointers on how to handle the groceries when you get home a little later.
But How Do I Get A Walmart Grocery Order Spot?
You may be thinking, that sounds great, if I could actually get a delivery slot. So let’s get into the meat and potatoes of it then.
Walmart Grocery opens their new delivery spots at 12 AM local time (update below), as do a lot of grocery stores with the pick up option. That is when you will have the best chance to grab a delivery. It is always for a day ahead. So if you go on Monday night (technically Tuesday morning at 12 AM) the delivery slots for Wednesday will open up. I have been able to get a delivery every single time by refreshing shortly after the clock strikes midnight.
If you are worried about competition then use the multiple browser trick. This only works if there are multiple options in your area. Open up a few browsers and have a different store set up in each one. Refresh them all at Midnight and you will find a slot at one of them.
You can reserve the slot without ordering so don’t try to rush an order through just select the time you want. You can then build your order the next day or add to it throughout the day as you come up with more items. I usually put together a base order and then add to it as I come across more things we need throughout the day.
Update
So it appears Walmart changed their whole system / set up shortly after I wrote this and things that have worked for weeks no longer work. They no longer release all slots at midnight each evening. They are instead releasing 1 timed slot per store at the top of the hour. The schedule may start at 4 or 5 AM but I was not getting up that early. I can say they released one slot per store at 6, 7 and 8 AM. I imagine it will happen at 9 AM as well until all time slots are released.
A time slot was released on the hour at
- 1 am – 8-9 am time slot added
- 2 am – 9-10 am
- 3 am – 10-11 am
- 4 am – 11 am -12 pm
- 5 am – 12-1 pm
- 6 am – 1-2 pm
- 7 am – 2-3 pm
- 8 am – 3-4 pm
- 9 am – 4-5 pm
- 10 am – 5-6 pm
Here are some screen shots of my finding. They are also making you fill out a order within a certain amount of time now. You just need to pass the $30 threshold and you can still adjust all the way up until 1:45 AM the morning of your order.
What About Other Grocery Pick Up / Delivery Options?
I think a lot of the local grocery stores that offer grocery pick up also open up their calendar at midnight. It is worth a try if Walmart Grocery isn’t an option in your area.
Amazon Fresh is a little different as they release slots throughout the day so you have to continue to refresh to try to snag a spot. It may be worth trying early in the morning there to try to get a jump start on anyone sleeping in. I think Instacart is similar in requiring you to refresh throughout the day. If anyone has tips on these options share them in the comments section.
How I Sanitize My Groceries
These services are amazing but people are still touching my groceries. These are people that could be sick without knowing it or someone could have left behind traces of Covid-19 while shopping in the store etc. So how do I sanitize my groceries when I get home?
I shared my process for Amazon deliveries last week and I use a similar system for these orders. Anything that is perishable and needs to be refrigerated or frozen I wipe down with some Clorox wipes. In an effort to cut down on my use of wipes, and to keep my sanity, I leave anything else in the back of the car for 3 days. Since it is reported that Covid-19 can live on plastic for up to 3 days I just let it sit for that amount of time and then unload it. It makes the now cumbersome process of unloading and wiping down the groceries a ton easier.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this article has helped you understand how to get a Walmart Grocery order spot every single time. And also how to stay safe once you do get your delivery. It is a great tool for maintaining proper social distancing and keeping yourself, your family and the workers as safe as possible. I wish stores would go to 100% pick up orders for the safety of the workers. If you are on the front lines I can’t thank you enough for what you are doing.
Also remember that Walmart Grocery codes as a grocery store so earn those bonus points when you go to pay. Even if the Walmart does not normally code as grocery these orders should. Check out our list of best credit cards to use on grocery purchases.
Share any tips or tricks you have been using in the comments.
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I’m a senior who has been using walmart grocery delivery since March now all of a sudden every time I try and get a time slot I get the message (Something went wrong in processing. Please try again.) I emailed customer service and they just sent me a copy & paste reply about time slots being filled and keep trying. It doesn’t say anything about the time I picked being filled like usual and it’s been this way for days and all times of the day or night. My delivery unlimited was cancelled, not by me, can’t get any help.
I would try using a different web browser or clearing your cookies and see if that helps.
Has anyone else had huge issues with the new grocery/Walmart app? I’m disabled and had to rely on this service before this pandemic. I can only afford to hire someone to get groceries for me once a month. Because of the many bugs on the new app, it’s really messed me up. You can’t add any items after you’ve placed your order despite what they say. When you try it says, “please wait a few minutes before adding anything else to your order”. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for two days!! You can’t edit your items in your cart. This becomes problematic because another bug is that the quantity of your items get changed in your cart after you have placed your order. It took over an hour for me to place the order to begin with because every time there was an out of stock item, it would list the item one by one and ask if you wanted to continue with checkout. You click yes and get booted out and then have to go through it all again item by item for the next 27 items that were out of stock. Then, when you go to the site afterwards (days afterwards) it still is not listing any of these items as out of stock! I know when I place my order that I’m only going to get about 1/4 of it. What I don’t understand is why they decided in the middle of this pandemic to roll out a buggy app when they had one that worked perfectly fine! Check out reviews for the new app on Apple. It’s a issue that is not being addressed. I’m not sure what people like me are going to do. I’m on a very limited income. Disability due to partial paralysis. You can only use food stamps to pick up at Walmart. Grocery delivery from Walmart and other places don’t take food stamps and charge four times more than the store. If I have to choose between paying rent and electricity versus food…I guess I’ll go without food.
Not sure if this helps but Target takes food stamps online and also delivers some grocery items. They don’t have the huge selection that Walmart has but I was able to get a lot of items so it might be worth a try:)
Based on the update in article and Walmart adding a new ‘@ Risk’ time slot (7-8am), has anyone determined when these open up?? I was hoping midnight, but not working for me… Thanks!
Just as an FYI it unfortunately doesn’t code as grocery if you use their delivery unlimited service and have it delivered directly to your home. I found that out the hard way.
That sucks Anthony – thanks for sharing!
Yeah, I was debating a downgrade of my BCP (maybe get an upgrade offer) but now I may just keep it seeing as we’re avoiding stores right now and probably for the next few months. Just don’t want to risk it with a newborn (plus some kidney concerns). Was really hoping to utilize 5x UR for groceries this quarter too 🙁
Hopefully things are settled down quite a bit in June and we can hit it hard before the end of the qaurter.
I’m a Senior trying to avoid having to wait the long entry lines and shop inside the store.
After trying to get a pick up slot for several days on 4/12 I was finally able to get one at 4AM for today 4/15, 11am-12noon. I had tried 12AM, 1AM and 2AM on that same morning and it did not yield any open slots. Yet, this morning at around 10AM Walmart cancelled my entire order!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, very frustrating to say the least!
Sorry to hear that Ray – I am surprised the canceled the entire thing. Usually they simply sub some items. They must not have any inventory. I would reach out to them via Walmart Chat and see if they can give you some type of credit for the issues since you had to spend a lot of time and effort to get a slot.
My 8-9am order was canceled April 18. I noticed early and was able to select a new slot for 4/18 @ 12-1. I was emailed and called, told their server crashed (possible – IF the server totally died and restoration wasn’t possible to get orders restored before the pick up time). This indicates each store has their own server OR at HQ and they partition systems for each location (makes sense since changing a location will mess up an order vs changing time isn’t a problem).
[…] (Update) How To Get A Walmart Grocery Order Spot – Every. Single. Time! […]
I think they switched it again now I’m seeing 5 days in advance and the 5th day had nearly every slot open at around 10am
It worked!! I just reloaded the page at 9am tuesday and got a 4-5 slot for Saturday! Thank you!
Awesome! Glad we could help
Any tips for when you get a time slot but it doesn’t let you check out?
It said my slot would expire at noon if I didn’t check out. At noon the time changed to 1, and at 1 it said my slot had expired. I refreshed the entire time. :/
Hmm that is a new one to me. So it wouldn’t let you complete the purchase after you reserved the slot? I would try using a different browser or do it incognito to see if that helps. Maybe a bad cookie etc. was messing things up.
I had that happen using my iPhone and the Walmart grocery app. I was able to reserve a time but it wouldn’t let me check out. It said that if I didn’t check out within the hour I would lose my slot. I tried refreshing and hard closing the app, but both were a no go. Then I turned my phone off and on and reopened the app and it allowed me to checkout and keep my slot. I think this was all happening because they modified the app during or shortly before the time I was trying to use it.
This happened to me but would not let me check out at all. On multiple devices…Kept changing my checkout time so if I checked out at 5:00 am then it said check out by 6. Then refreshed it and kept trying but all it said was error try again. 🙁 no groceries.
It’s midnight. No time slots available….
They switched up their entire system in the last day or two and have a new set up. I have updated the article. They are now releasing one slot on the hour in the morning. I witnessed these from 6am-8am but I think it may start at 4 or 5 am and go on to 10 or 11am. So check at the top of the hour each hour in the morning and you should get something.
For what it’s worth, as of last night the above has all changed (for me at least).
I logged in at 12:05 a.m. and experienced 2 significant changes:
1) My local Walmarts are now showing 2 (3?) days ahead. So today is Thursday. At 12:05 the app was showing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
2) Every day, every slot, every Walmart grayed out.
As an experiment I looked this morning and there was a slot open for SUNDAY. I’ve considered several possibilities, including that last night was a glitch as they’re updating the app to show more days, that they changed the time they roll over availability, that they changed the time to Eastern time, or to like 6 a.m., etc. Definitely very different though. Anybody else with similar experience?
I noticed that last night too Jeff. I wasn’t sure if they normally do that for the weekends or not since I usually get my slots early in the week. It would be nice if they opened up the calendar further. It will be interesting to see if that is here to stay or not.
I’m having the same issue. Despite going on at 12:00 this evening every day was grated out for four days!
It looks like they are switching from the Walmart Grocery app to a new Walmart app that consolidates groceries and other items. This app is designed to work with Siri so you can order through voice commands. I wa able to get one spot at 1am. The only spot that showed up at 1am was for 8-9am on Sunday morning which is the usual two days in the future.
So I’m assuming this migration from the grocery app to the new whole store app is having some effect on the population of open spots on the old grocery app which has reliably occurred at midnight.
It seems that you will now be given a slot that is 2 days + 6-7 hours out from the time you access the app.
Same experience for me tonight. Next 4 days are grated out and I tried at midnight and kept trying. No luck.
I am going to update the post today but I did a test this morning and they have changed the whole set up. It appears they are releasing one slot per hour. So Monday is the end of the schedule today since they are going out 4 days now.
A time slot was released on the hour at
6am – 1-2pm slot
7am – 2-3pm slot
8am – 3-4pm slot
They may have released one at 5am too – I am not sure and I didn’t wanna get up that early to check but there were no slots left at 5:55am but every store in my area (10 or so) had 1 slot open at 6am.
Same thing happened at 7 and 8 am.
Hope this helps everyone and I will add pictures and info a little bit later today.
Why are you using antibacterial wipes to kill a virus?
Because the EPA says Clorox wipes should get rid of the virus on surfaces.
[…] How To Get A Walmart Grocery Order Spot – Every. Single. Time! by Miles to Memories. […]
Thank you SO MUCH Mark for sharing the secret of getting a Walmart pick-up slot during coronavirus! We are seniors and I’ve tried for 2 weeks to try to get a slot. I’ll pass this on to my sister and her family, they are more at risk health wise than my husband and me. Thanks also to you younger people saving the slots for those more at risk. You’re all very considerate. God bless you Mark and your readers, stay safe and well!
Glad I could help Rachelle. I hope you and your sister are able to stay safe!
Helpful to know and appreciate to read the sanitize process! For Instacart, it seems like somewhere around midnight to 3am delivery times are released and I have been able to secure delivery slot usually up to around 7am. I haven’t seen any delivery time open up during the day for Instacart. This is in the Bay Area. Also, Amazon Fresh is super hard to get but seems to release right at midnight and gone within a few minutes. This has been done by my friend twice with midnight Amazon Fresh. Stay safe all!
Thanks for the tips Elena!
My husband and I are both elderly and have been sheltered in for over a month. I used Walmart grocery online then picked up the order on two separate occasions. Very disappointed they will not sell you toilet tissue to be picked up with this service. They told us it is Walmart policy, you must go inside the store to purchase toilet tissue
you use the non grocery side
Even better take it to the next level, you could take the new Ninja skills and use it to order groceries for the older who can’t risk interaction. Most people I know in that category could not understand or do not have the means to order online.
Great idea Chris!
My senior parents use a flip phone and not very computer say so I have been placing food orders on their behalf through Amazon Prime/Whole foods home delivery which is also hard to get a delivery slot but I will give Walmart grocery a try great tips!!
My pleasure Chris!
I’m still young and healthy, at 44, and I’m leaving those slots for people that cannot risk interaction with others, just my 2c on this.
Agree 100% about leaving those precious spots for those who really need them. I have several relatives with significant health issues who can’t get these spots. We shop on their behalf but some don’t have that luxury. Please folks… if you’re not high risk leave those spots for those that are.
A noble gesture Scott
Please don’t take one of these limited pick-up slots if you are not in a high-risk category for the virus. Seniors, those who are immune compromised, and those with preexisting conditions in various places across the country (NY, FL, DC-area) cannot get slots for grocery deliveries and pick-ups because of the unprecedented demand. Be a good neighbor and leave these slots for those who really need them.