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The center, located in Indiana, is the second of four next-generation facilities Walmart plans to open. Walmart has opened a new 2.2 million square foot fulfillment center, which is the company’s largest fulfillment center to date. Located 20 miles northeast of Indianapolis in McCordsville, the center will allow Walmart to fulfill more orders more quickly, according to a statement by Walmart. The space is Walmart’s largest fulfillment center to date and is designed to expand access to the retailer’s next- or two-day shipping. The McCordsville fulfillment center is the second of four next-generation facilities Walmart plans to open. These locations combine people, technology and machine learning to achieve faster shipping and delivery, says Walmart. Combined with the rest of Walmart’s fulfillment network, these next-generation fulfillment centers will enable the retailer to reach 95% of the U.S. population with the service. “The McCordsville grand opening marks a major milestone in our supply…

With almost 56,000 convenience stores in Japan today, it’s hard to believe everything started with a single shop. With their familiar logos shining their lights on every street corner and many places in between, it’s also hard to believe that this first effort didn’t even have a big franchise behind it. And with convenience stores shifting over ¥10 trillion per year, it seems unimaginable that the concept wasn’t a rousing success from the get-go. The very first Japanese convenience store, which opened in 1969, is barely known today. We can only be sure about what it wasn’t. It didn’t carry any of those logos that guide us through the night today, it didn’t sell spam-filled onigiri or microwaveable yakisoba sandwiches and you couldn’t pay your health insurance or your Uniqlo online order at the counter — all things a modern convenience store customer now takes for granted. The Beginning of…

Ikea Australia will launch its new Sustainable Living Shop, an initiative to help consumers live more sustainably while potentially saving money on household expenses.  The Sustainable Living Shop is a new retail store-in-store concept that will open in all 10 Ikea locations across the country by early next year. Customers can purchase products that help them minimise their carbon footprint at home by using less energy and producing less waste, potentially saving them money in the long run. Ikea Australia says the debut comes at a time of rising cost-of-living challenges. Despite some of the cost-saving benefits associated with behaviours such as using energy-efficient lightbulbs or reducing food waste, a recent survey done by Ikea Australia indicated that 52 per cent of Australians feel living sustainably would increase their cost of living. “Right now, the cost of living, energy and food are all rapidly increasing, and we understand the challenges…

Food delivery giant DoorDash is launching a fleet of corner stores accessible only via its contracted couriers as it hopes to win a share of Australia’s $100 billion annual grocery market despite the recent failure of a string of local start-ups attempting the same thing. The company has been trialling three “DashMart” sites that will serve as bases to rapidly deliver fresh groceries, pantry staples and household items to customers living near the inner-western Sydney suburb of Alexandria, Melbourne’s CBD and Brisbane’s West End. DashMart’s Melbourne site: Locals will be able to pick up groceries via the DoorDash app.  DashMart’s Melbourne site: Locals will be able to pick up groceries via the DoorDash app. SCOTT MCNAUGHTON / THE AGE DoorDash believes it has the scale to succeed where its competitors have failed. “We wouldn’t be launching and expanding if we weren’t confident,” DoorDash Australia, Canada and New Zealand general manager Rebecca…

After facing headwinds, the service seems to be getting off the ground. ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Amazon is finally ready to launch drone delivery, nearly a decade after then-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos first announced the technology, reports CNBC. By the end of this year, Amazon will start delivering orders via drone in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas. The drone is Amazon’s MK27-2 model and will drop packages from about 12 feet in the air. Weighing 80 pounds and about five-and-a-half feet in diameter, the drone can carry packages weighing under five pounds, and the orders have to fit in one box about the size of a shoe box. “If the drone encounters another aircraft when it’s flying, it’ll fly around that other aircraft. If, when it gets to its delivery location, your dog runs underneath the drone, we won’t deliver the package,” Calsee Hendrickson, who leads product and program management for the Prime…

Voly, one of the upstart companies that sprang up in the lockdown-era fast grocery delivery mania, has made fresh cuts to its workforce as it battles to survive in a market where cheap venture funding has dried up. The start-up pulled the trigger on a round of lay-offs on Tuesday, according to two sources. Voly raised a large $18 million seed round last year from Sequoia Capital India, Global Founders Fun and Australian-based Artesian Capital. Voly, founded by Thibault Henry (left) and Mark Heath, has had to make major lay-offs. Media reports back in June said Voly had cut back its staff by half, and reached over the phone on Wednesday, its co-CEO Mark Heath declined to say whether the company was solvent or address questions about the ongoing viability of the business. He confirmed there had been lay-offs, but said the company could not “comment further because we’re engaged in a…