Rival grocery chains are scrambling to keep up while Walmart offers shoppers more ways to shop without even entering a store, panelists explained at ICSC’s New York Deal Making. The retail giant has introduced grocery pickup at some 3,000 stores and is testing out automated pickup stations, as well as delivery right to the customer’s refrigerator.

“The customers are loving it,” said Hamidul Hoq, senior program manager for Walmart’s grocery pickup and new access points division. The retailer is hoping to roll out grocery pickup services at all its stores and is improving convenience as it does so, Hoq said. Shoppers order online and, as they drive onto the property, a Walmart app alerts the store so employees can bring the groceries to the customer’s vehicle. As for the automated pickup stations, those customers retrieve the purchases from a locker accessed via smartphone.

Walmart is bringing such convenience closer to customers’ homes, too, by experimenting with 2,000-square-foot pickup stations in more densely populated neighborhoods. “These are in test mode, and we’re learning a ton from them, Hoq said.

But to further save customers a journey, the company is testing a service by which it brings groceries straight to their refrigerators, whether they’re home or not.

All but the home-delivered services are offered at no charge or markup.

Customers are not the only ones enthusiastic about these grocery pickups, observed Walmart senior manager of real estate Nick Henry. Landlords and co-tenants, too, are benefiting from the traffic these services generate. He noted: “My success is the landlord’s success and vice versa.”