Walmart makes you go to the back of the store. The walk alone takes a few minutes. Then you wait for an employee to show up, then you wait for them to lookup your order, then they go into the back room to get it. Then walk all the way back out.
For Target the pickup spot is right by the entrance and there’s already a person waiting there. They just scan your barcode, show your ID, and hand you your item.
When it works it works really, really, really well. I mean, in and out in less than two minutes. However, there was a time the employee didn't get a notification, so it might still need to get the kinks ironed out.
I agree that previously the store pickup was an afterthought and not always run very well.
I did an in-store pickup at Walmart last night. I got a text message with the pickup # and when I went there (Walmart's on my way home and I stop there most days), the greeter at the door was the person who got my order. Pickup station was right by the door and I was done in under 2 minutes.
It's improved a lot in the last year!
They also have this huge digital tablet thing where you can type in your order id and someone can grab it for you quicker.
There's never anyone there and you generally wait several minutes after you've hit the pager on the card reader.
Your store should switch over to the new system sometime soon.
I was there to pick up photos (thus store has online pickup and photos at the same place)... They screwed up my order and I waited 45 minutes and left empty handed because no one there knew how to make a photo calendar and doesn't k know where mine went. But I digress.
I basically witnessed 45 minutes of a train wreck of people trying to pick up orders (probably Christmas presents) from a disorganized and understaffed center. No one was happy...
It almost always has employees in the pick-up room. If not, you can tap a screen at the counter that alerts an employee for you.
You show your license. It takes very little time to look up the order, they just punch in your order number or look your order up by name.
The pick-up items are all stored right in that pick-up room, so there's zero wait for them to go into another storage room to get your item.
Usually takes a few minutes total. I've used them to do an item pick-up in store maybe a dozen times in three years, zero bad experiences so far.
Yet you likely brag about how many "steps" you had on your Health app on your iphone.
Fucking walk.