Walmart delivery workers say a new app feature is sending them running around stores — and wasting precious time
Walmart revised a feature in its Spark app that helps delivery workers find products in-store.Spark delivery workers say it wastes time when filling delivery orders.Walmart has spent years trying to deliver orders faster using its stores.A new feature in Walmart's Spark app is slowing the chain's delivery efforts, workers say.The Spark delivery workers told Business Insider that Walmart's app has changed a feature that helps them map out their trip around the store to pick up items. Instead of providing a set route that made the best use of a shopper's time, as the app used to do, the Spark app now tracks the worker's location in the store and rearranges the list of items based on their proximity.Four Spark drivers said the feature is slowing them down.
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Walmart revised a feature in its Spark app that helps delivery workers find products in-store.Spark delivery workers say it wastes time when filling delivery orders.Walmart has spent years trying to deliver orders faster using its stores.A new feature in Walmart's Spark app is slowing the chain's delivery efforts, workers say.The Spark delivery workers told Business Insider that Walmart's app has changed a feature that helps them map out their trip around the store to pick up items. Instead of providing a set route that made the best use of a shopper's time, as the app used to do, the Spark app now tracks the worker's location in the store and rearranges the list of items based on their proximity.Four Spark drivers said the feature is slowing them down. In some instances, it also prompted them to pick up items at risk of melting, such as frozen TV dinners and bags of ice, at the start of their shopping trip rather than the end."I frequently get anxiety checking my lists every day, making sure I'm not running around needlessly back and forth, wasting my time and the customer's time," one Spark worker said.Wasting time can affect Spark workers' income, as they are paid per delivery rather than per hour. It could also have implications for Walmart, which has ramped up competition lately with Amazon to deliver fresh groceries to customers' homes in hours or minutes."We work to continuously improve the experience for shoppers and drivers on the Spark Driver Platform by introducing features that help Spark Shoppers navigate stores more efficiently and locate items more easily," a Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider.The spokesperson also said the company's grocery operations "follow applicable food safety regulations and have processes in place to help maintain the cold chain throughout the shopping and delivery experience."Melting lasagna and wasted timeThe mapping feature, called Smart Path in the Spark app, often prompts Spark workers to pick fresh or frozen items early in the shopping trip, two of the Spark drivers said.In one case, Smart Path suggested picking up a large frozen lasagna as one of the first few items, the Spark driver who worried about wasting time said."It did not thaw out as I was very quick with everything else, but that very well could have not been the case with, say, a new shopper," the Spark worker said.On other shopping trips, the app has recommended picking up bags of ice as soon as the worker walked into the store — "a very bad idea," the Spark worker said.On Reddit, some posts include screenshots of the app telling Spark workers to pick frozen items first in orders that contain a dozen or more items.
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- Walmart revised a feature in its Spark app that helps delivery workers find products in-store.Spark delivery workers say it wastes time when filling delivery orders.Walmart has spent years trying to deliver orders faster using its stores.A new feature in Walmart's Spark app is slowing the chain's delivery efforts, workers say.The Spark delivery workers told Business Insider that Walmart's app has changed a feature that helps them map out their trip around the store to pick up items. Instead of providing a set route that made the best use of a shopper's time, as the app used to do, the Spark app now tracks the worker's location in the store and rearranges the list of items based on their proximity.Four Spark drivers said the feature is slowing them down.
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Walmart delivery workers say a new app feature is sending them running around stores — and wasting precious time
Sources1TypeCoverageBusiness Insider