Walmart to Break Ground on Next-Gen California Fulfillment Center
Walmart has announced plans to open its fifth ‘next-generation’ fulfillment center in Stockton, CA, in 2026.
The retail giant says the California facility will make life easier for associates through an automated, high-density storage and retrieval system that will streamline a manual, 12-step process to just five steps. The new center will have double the typical storage capacity, meaning Walmart can fulfill twice the number of customer orders a day and expand next or two-day shipping for shoppers.
The Stockton fulfillment center will be the fifth of Walmart’s “next generation” facilities bringing associates, technology, and machine learning together with a view to providing faster shipping and delivery to the West Coast, while also increasing fulfillment capacity for online orders.
The new center will also create around 1000 jobs, many of them tech-focused, the retailer shared.
In June this year, Walmart opened its largest fulfillment center to date – a 2.2 million square foot space 20 miles northeast of Indianapolis. Eventually, this network of next-generation fulfillment centers will enable the retailer to reach 95% of the U.S. population with next of two-day shipping, the company says.
“The announcement of our high-tech fulfillment center in Stockton commemorates yet another significant stride in our omni-channel retail efforts,” said Karisa Sprague, senior vice president, fulfillment network operations for Walmart U.S. “In response to increasing customer demand for online shopping, we are implementing technology to enhance delivery speed and accuracy for our customers, all the while creating new and exciting technology-empowered career paths for our associates.”
