Walmart to open fifth “next-gen” fulfillment center in 2026

Mega-retailer Walmart Inc. plans to open its fifth “next-gen” fulfillment center in 2026, saying the Stockton, California facility will enable the retailer to fulfill online orders throughout the west coast with greater speed and efficiency.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company had opened a similar “next generation fulfillment center” in Indianapolis in June.  

Combined with the rest of Walmart’s fulfillment network, those high-tech facilities will enable the retailer to reach 95% of the U.S. population with next- or two-day shipping. And Walmart Fulfillment Services, Walmart’s end-to-end third-party fulfillment service, will also leverage the space to fulfill third-party Marketplace items.

The new California site will be a 900,000 square-foot building that features an automated, high-density storage and retrieval system that streamlines a manual, 12-step process down to just five steps. Benefits of the new technology include more comfort for associates, double the storage capacity, and twice the number of customer orders Walmart can fulfill in a day, expanding next- or two-day shipping for Walmart customers.

“The announcement of our high-tech fulfillment center in Stockton commemorates yet another significant stride in our omni-channel retail efforts,” Karisa Sprague, senior vice president, Fulfillment Network Operations for Walmart U.S., said in a release. “In response to increasing customer demand for online shopping, we are implementing technology to enhance delivery speed and accuracy for our customers, all the while creating new and exciting technology-empowered career paths for our associates.”

Walmart did not specify the material handling equipment vendor that will provide the equipment in the new DC, but in 2022 the company acquired its AS/RS provider, a Massachusetts startup called Alert Innovation, and said it planned to roll the technology out to dozens of locations.