Walmart plans $24M in renovations, tech upgrades at Indiana stores

Retail giant Walmart on Wednesday announced plans to spend about $24 million over the next year to remodel seven stores in Indiana, including its supercenter in Brownsburg.

Besides the Brownsburg store at 400 W. Northfield Drive, stores on the list are in Linton, Greencastle, Kokomo, Seymour, South Lafayette and Aurora.

Walmart said many of the renovation projects will include the additions of several in-store and online features designed to streamline or add convenience to the shopping experience.

Companywide, Walmart projects that it will spend about $11 billion for capital expenditures (money spent to upgrade or acquire properties and equipment) in the current fiscal year, which began Feb. 1.

Walmart didn’t disclose specific plans or timetables for individual stores but said it would add online grocery pickup at 30 more Indiana stores in 2018. It already offers the service at about 20 stores in the state.

The company said it is evaluating opportunities to offer its “Mobile Express Scan & Go” in new Indiana markets. The service, which lets customers scan their items on their phones and avoid checkout lines, is already available at all Sam’s Club stores and one supercenter in Terre Haute.

The retailer said it also plans to begin adding “Pickup Towers” at more stores. The towers let customers pick up online orders without going to the customer service counter. Some of the towers will be accompanied by storage lockers to handle larger items.

Indiana stores in Terre Haute, Aurora and Warsaw already have the towers. Stores in Anderson and Greencastle are expected to get them later this year.
Walmart said it has more than 40,000 employees in Indiana.