Walmart Picks Northern California for High-Tech Facility
This project will be the fifth of its kind for the company in the U.S.
The 900,000-square-foot project in Stockton, Calif., marks Walmart’s fifth such facility. Image courtesy of Walmart
Walmart is improving its West Coast shipping services with the addition of a new 900,000-square-foot facility in Stockton, Calif. Set to open in 2026, it will be the retail giant’s fifth “next-generation” fulfillment center in the country.
Located at 150 Mariposa Road, about 50 miles south of Sacramento, Calif., the new facility will boost Walmart’s processing of online orders throughout the West Coast. The “next-generation” fulfillment centers combine skilled workers with technology and machine learning to increase shipping and delivery times, according to the company.
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The high-tech facility will feature an automated, high-density storage and retrieval system that streamlines a manual 12-step process down to five steps. Walmart states the new technology doubles the storage capacity and the number of customer orders that can be fulfilled in a day, expanding next- or two-day online shipping. The company said another benefit is improved comfort for associates working in the center.
Combined with the rest of Walmart’s fulfillment network, this generation will enable the retailer to reach 95 percent of the U.S. population with next- or two-day shipping, the company stated.
Walmart currently has eight distribution centers, four fulfillment centers and 309 retail stores in California, where it employs more than 100,000 associates. The Stockton fulfillment center expects to employ more than 1,000 people.
High-tech growth for Walmart
Walmart initially planned four “next-generation” fulfillment centers when it announced the new high-tech concept in June 2022. At that time, the company stated its priority was to strategically locate the FCs to pair most effectively with its 4,700 stores and 210 distribution centers. The first four FCs were slated for Joliet, Ill.; McCordsville, Ind.; Lancaster, Texas, and Greencastle, Pa.
The first high-tech fulfillment center opened in September 2022 in Joliet. The 1.1 million-square-foot FC is located at 3501 S. Brandon Road.
In June, Walmart completed the 2.2 million-square-foot McCordsville site. Located at 5259 W. 500 N., on 151 acres, it is the largest FC in the Walmart chain. The company picked the Indiana location back in 2020 and sought tax abatements for investments totaling more than $600 million. The center is next to Indianapolis Regional Airport.
Other Walmart centers
In August 2022, Walmart opened its second high-tech consolidation center in the U.S., a 412,500-square-foot build-to-suit property at 1625 Heilmandale Road in Lebanon, Pa. The consolidation center is designed to receive, sort and deliver goods to the company’s regional distribution centers, reducing the total number of shipments needed. Featuring 156 loading docks, it was Walmart’s largest such facility at the time, following the earlier development of a 340,000-square-foot consolidation center in Colton, Calif. The property was completed by Transwestern Development Co. and equity partner QuadReal Property Group.
In October 2022, Manulife Investment Management purchased Alliance Gateway 11, a 788,160-square-foot industrial warehouse in Fort Worth, Texas, fully leased by Walmart as an e-commerce fulfillment facility. The property was built in 2007 and is located near Fort Worth Alliance Airport and the BNSF Railway Intermodal Facility.
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