Walmart opens perishable foods DC in Texas

The mega-retailer Walmart today opened a 730,000 square-foot perishable distribution center (PDC) in Texas, saying the move is a strategic part of its supply chain transformation and will keep its more than 4,600 stores stocked with fresh and frozen merchandise.

The PDC is Walmart’s second facility in the town of Lancaster, located 15 miles south of Dallas, following a next-generation fulfillment center that opened there in 2023.

The new facility receives and processes fresh produce, eggs, dairy, flowers, and frozen goods for delivery to nearby Walmart stores. According to Walmart, it does that by leveraging technology to process more than double the volume of a traditional DC, getting items onto store shelves faster than ever before. Employees work with high-tech systems to create “the perfect pallet” with fragile merchandise, such as loading eggs and yogurt toward the top, which drastically reduces the number of boxes an associate has to manually stack.

In another step to improve efficiency, those store-ready pallets are built by department, making them easier to unload at the store. This helps maximize space on trucks, reducing transportation costs and creating savings that can be passed on to customers, Walmart said.

Walmart is the largest grocery retailer in the U.S., and the company says the new site marks an effort to keep up with the ways that customers are changing the way they shop, according to a blog post by Dave Guggina, executive vice president, Supply Chain Operations, Walmart U.S. “As customers change the way they shop, we’re taking steps to build even more trust with them, ensuring the things they want – and need – are on shelves faster than ever before. To do that, we've been investing in data, increasingly intelligent software, and automation – all to transform our business and create a more connected supply chain,” Guggina said.

The facility is one of five brand new high-tech perishable distribution centers, following the first which opened in Shafter, California, in 2021. Additional sites will open soon in Wellford, South Carolina; Belvidere, Illinois; and Pilesgrove, New Jersey.

The Arkansas-based company will also expand four traditional perishable DCs by adding over 500,000 square feet of automation per site to increase capacity for fresh product. Those include facilities in Mankato, Minnesota; Mebane, North Carolina; Garrett, Indiana; and Shelbyville, Tennessee.