Walmart opens vending machines in 200 stores

Walmart branch

This year, Walmart aims to generate $ 75 billion in e-commerce.

(Photo: AP)

new York Buy toilet paper, milk and bread – and pull out Bitcoin before going out: Walmart has started a pilot project in the USA and set up machines in 200 branches where customers can get the cryptocurrency.

The green machines look like a mix of ATM and empties acceptance. The Walmart customers put bills in the machine and receive a voucher for Bitcoin.

With the cooperation with Coinstar, which developed the Bitcoin ATMs, the world’s largest retailer is once again showing that it wants to be at the forefront when it comes to new technologies. The once dusty, cheap home from home has blossomed over the past few years into a digital and innovative player that Amazon also has to take seriously: Goldman Sachs only put the share on its “list of convictions” for promising companies this week. The share price has doubled over the past four years.

This year, Walmart, which already ranks second among US online retailers and has overtaken Ebay, plans to turn over $ 75 billion in e-commerce. Walmart has cleverly combined its online business with its physical stores, also offered its platform to third parties and successfully introduced a premium program with fast delivery times with Walmart +. Walmart was able to assert itself particularly well in the corona pandemic when other competitors first had to set up their online and delivery business.

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The retailer is also pushing ahead with autonomous driving: In the spring, Walmart took a stake in the GM Robotaxi subsidiary Cruise and has driverless cars delivered as a pilot. It was only in September that Walmart announced that it would also be cooperating with the self-driving cars from Ford and Argo AI and supply customers in Miami, Washington DC and Austin.

Experiments in finance

Walmart also wants to experiment in the financial sector: In January, the group entered into a strategic partnership with the fintech investor Ribbit Capital, which, among other things, is behind the trading app Robinhood. Walmart also brought on two top executives from Goldman Sachs who built the online consumer business at the investment bank. It is still unclear what exactly is coming. But the once dusty retailer obviously also wants to be at the forefront when it comes to payment or financing apps. The new Bitcoin machines could also have sprung from the considerations of this team.

At times, Walmart had even bid together with Oracle for the US activities of the short video service Tiktok. The aim was to expand Tiktok’s business – as with its mother, Bytedance – later to include e-commerce. Nothing came of the deal, but it shows how eager to experiment the listed family company is today.

However, before Walmart customers can redeem their Bitcoin voucher on their digital account, they have to set up an account with Coinstar partner Coinme and pass a background check. There are also four percent “Bitcoin fees” and seven percent “cash exchange fees”. So it’s an expensive way to get Bitcoin. Nevertheless, the machines in the supermarket branch lower the hurdle for people to invest in Bitcoin.

Previously, there had even been rumors in crypto circles that Walmart would accept the crypto currency Litecoin. However, this turned out to be a hoax.

More: How Walmart went from being a cheap hawker to a digital attacker

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