The Ghost Kitchens service enables Walmart shoppers to select food and beverages from the menus of up to 25 national and regional restaurant and CPG food concepts, combine them into a single order submitted via touchscreen kiosks and get a text when their order is ready, allowing them to shop while their order is prepared. Walmart has opened ghost kitchens to expand delivery offerings without needing additional physical space. The Rochester Walmart location will offer meal pickup or delivery from up to 25 brands. The main reasons ghost kitchens fail are lack of marketing and high customer acquisition costs. A delivery-only restaurant allows customers to place and pay for orders completely online for more convenient dining.
Most ghost kitchens consist of a few staff members working together in a kitchen setting to prepare meals and manage orders — there is no need for servers, hosts, or other employees you might find in a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Walmart joins Kroger in exploring the ghost kitchen trend, which offers another takeout alternative for shuttered restaurants and in-store dining venues. Ghost kitchens have taken off during the pandemic as restaurants, from mainstream brands to high-end eateries, invest in dedicated facilities to prepare and deliver meals.
The kitchens are located in Walmart stores and are used to prepare and package food for delivery to customers through the company’s online grocery service. Walmart ghost kitchens work by taking orders from customers through the company’s online grocery service, then preparing and packaging the food in the store kitchen. The food is then delivered to the customer’s door.
Ghost kitchens work by partnering with food delivery services like Uber Eats or Grubhub. Restaurants will prepare the food in their main kitchen and then send it to the ghost kitchen to be packaged and delivered to customers. Now, thanks to a partnership with Ghost Kitchens, some Walmart stores will offer customers a similar experience for takeout meals. Simply head to the Ghost Kitchens counter, mix and match items from two dozen recognizable restaurant brands, and collect your feast when you’re done shopping.
Ghost Kitchen Brands announced it is building on an existing Canadian relationship with Walmart and plans to open several U.S. locations over the next year, including Texas, California, Illinois and Georgia, among others. If you’re a restaurant owner, you’re already fighting tooth and nail for your share of stomach, only now your customers can grab-and-go from 20+ restaurant brands in one fell swoop from the Walmart around the corner.
The Ghost Kitchens concept has been installed in two Walmart stores in Ontario, and three more are scheduled to come online in April. Another 33 are under construction in Canada and the U.S. this year. "We believe in Ghost Kitchens’ strategy and vision, and we’re very excited to be the first retailer to team up with Ghost Kitchens,” said a Walmart Canada executive.