BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart is converting former pharmacies and other small retail spaces into local delivery hubs as the retailer accelerates efforts to improve grocery fulfillment and strengthen its competitive position against Amazon in e-commerce and same-day delivery.
The company has opened at least three “Walmart Depot” locations over the past year in Texas, New Jersey, and Arkansas, according to public filings and Financial Times reporting. Additional proposed locations include former Rite Aid pharmacies in New York and California, as well as a former Walgreens site in Arkansas.
The strategy reflects a broader shift in retail pharmacy real estate, as chains including CVS Health, Walgreens and Rite Aid continue to close stores and rationalize their footprints amid years of margin pressure, reimbursement challenges and changing consumer behavior.
Walmart Depots are smaller facilities, typically about 20,000 square feet, that are closed to the public and designed exclusively for fulfillment operations. These locations stock high-demand grocery and household products and serve drivers on Walmart’s Spark delivery platform.
One depot in Carlstadt, N.J., operates out of a former commercial building about five miles from Manhattan and near several Walmart Supercenters. According to municipal records cited in the report, contractors installed refrigeration and storage infrastructure to support rapid grocery fulfillment.
The move comes as retailers intensify their investments in faster delivery services. Walmart said its U.S. e-commerce business now exceeds $100 billion in annual sales and continues to grow by more than 20% annually. Amazon recently expanded 30-minute grocery delivery in dozens of U.S. markets, increasing pressure on retailers to shorten fulfillment times for food and consumable purchases.
Walmart representatives described the depot model in local planning documents as a way to “deliver faster to more people,” with some proposed facilities supporting delivery windows “in as soon as 30 minutes.”
The initiative could also create a secondary market for vacant drugstore properties as pharmacy operators continue to reduce store counts nationwide. Real estate brokers cited in the report said former pharmacy boxes are increasingly attractive for logistics and fulfillment uses because of their established locations within residential trade areas.
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