A new option has arrived as online grocery shopping and pickup comes to the Bonita Lakes Walmart Supercenter in Meridian.

“Walmart is moving towards the future and this is the future,” said Shonda Moore, assistant manager of e-commerce with the company. “Everybody can’t come in and shop, and it will really benefit handicapped customers and even moms who have kids, where they don’t ever have to get out of the car to shop.”

The service begins at Bonita Lakes on Thursday, May 31.

To take care of the shopping, Walmart has hired eight personal shoppers trained by Moore. It’s as simple as downloading the Walmart app and grocery app, she said.

“We need a four hour turnaround for an order,” she said. “For example, if you put in your order at 4 a.m., your order will be ready by 8 a.m.”

A minimum of a $30 order is needed to shop online for pick-up.

Customers may contact personal shoppers to let them know they are 10 minutes away from picking up their order and they will deliver it to the car.

“They will show the customers the items to see if they are satisfied,” Moore said. “We are shopping for our customers just like we would shop for ourselves.”

In addition to the Bonita Lakes location, online shopping will go into effect at the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Highway 39, and the Walmart Supercenter on Highway 19 North beginning Sept. 11. Moore said the online services will be offered to SNAP customers in a couple of months.

As the orders grow, more personal shoppers will be added.

“When we do over 900 orders, I will then be able to hire eight more personal shoppers,” she said. “We will have eight doing groceries and eight doing general merchandise.”

Customers may shop online for general merchandise by placing items bought in a tower on their app.

“The tower will hold 300 items,” Moore said. “The customer can email to let us know they are coming and we will remove from the tower the items they are coming for.”

Customers may place orders as early as seven days ahead by giving a time and the day they will come for pick-up.

Walmart is offering incentives in the form of coupons for savings on orders. There are $10 off coupons on the first order, as well as $10 off for referring a friend who uses the online service.

“You may use the $10 refer a friend coupon up to 20 times,” Moore said.

In addition to online shopping and pick-up, delivery service will soon be rolled out where a customer may place an order and have an Uber driver pick it up.

This new service at the Bonita Lakes location is the only one that will have a pickup tower in the state at this time, Moore said.