Walmart is finally planning to move into New York, but not with stores, and the move will help the company compete in a growing grocery wars.

The retailer will later this year open up a fulfillment center for Jet.com, the e-commerce start-up based in Hoboken, New Jersey, it acquired roughly two years ago, in the Bronx.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the news.

A spokeswoman for Jet said the warehouse opening will bring hundreds of jobs to the neighborhood, and the building will be used to fulfill orders of everything from fresh groceries to Apple electronics. There, Jet will leverage delivery service Parcel to get items to customers as quickly as possible, she said. The company uses the third-party service in lieu of completing deliveries on its own.

The move deeper into New York comes as Jet has been targeting more urban and millennial-dense markets, something Walmart hasn’t been as successful with.

The center, slated to open this fall, should help Jet bulk up its supply chain and compete better with Amazon-Whole Foods on same- and next-day grocery delivery. There are a handful of other rivals in the city for similar goods, like Instacart and FreshDirect.

The company said the center will only handle Jet deliveries, not Walmart orders, to start. It will only hold inventory specific to Jet.com, a spokeswoman confirmed.

Walmart meanwhile is planning to expand its grocery delivery business to roughly 800 stores, or 100 metro areas, by the end of the year.

Source: Tech CNBC
Walmart plans same-day grocery push in New York with Jet.com