Walmart, OCADO, and the Gap They Don't Seem to Close

THEY ARE MASSIVE

We all know the big retail giant Walmart, and depending on your geolocation you may have even had the pleasure of attending one of their magnificent stores. I am not trying to be sarcastic — that is the truth. I believe they are magnificent. Here are some numbers to back it up:

• —Walmart operates more than 10,800 stores and clubs across 19 countries, employing approximately 2.1 million people worldwide.
• —There are 3,559 Walmart Supercenters in the US alone, averaging 178,000 square feet each. The largest, in Albany, New York, covers 260,000 square feet across two floors.
• —Canada alone has 404 Walmart locations.
• —They operate 379 distribution facilities worldwide.
• —255 million customers visit a Walmart store every single week.

Since some of you may lack the attention span to read that or even this, let me put it like this: THEY ARE MASSIVE.

And yet, they still can't crack it

A company of this stature should be able to solve almost all problems — and when it comes to automation, they have gotten really close. More than 60% of Walmart's US stores now receive freight from automated distribution centers, and over half of its e-commerce fulfillment volume runs through automated systems. They are committing to automation. They have infinite resources, hundreds of automated warehouses, and 2.1 million employees.

And they still can't crack the overnight store problem.

I think that shows that the solution — common to popular belief — is not more money or more people. It's a completely different approach.

Enter OCADO

What if we leave the land of the free and go to the land across the water that supposedly freed them. The United Kingdom — the land that also has its own retail giants with Tesco, Asda, Marks and Spencer, and many more. Alongside these giants is a small beast by the name of OCADO that is making its way.

Ocado was founded in 2000 with no physical stores — just a website and a vision to deliver groceries better than anyone else. What they built behind the scenes is anything but modest. Their flagship fulfillment center in Erith, southeast London spans 563,000 square feet and runs thousands of robots simultaneously. A 50-item grocery order gets picked and packed in under 5 minutes. They then licensed that technology to major grocers worldwide — Kroger in the US, Coles in Australia, and Sobeys right here in Canada. Ocado's technology is already on Canadian soil.

The shelf remains untouched

So once again we have lots of stores, millions of employees, hundreds of automated warehouses, 25 years of robotics research, and technology deployed across three continents. And yet the store shelf remains untouched.

Ocado still relies on human hands for the final stage of their fulfillment process — and in February 2026 cut 1,000 jobs as their warehouse rollout ran into difficulty. Even they are struggling.

This is not a money problem. Walmart proved that. This is not a technology problem. Ocado proved that. The gap neither of them has closed exists inside every retail store, every single night, when the doors lock and the shelves still need restocking before morning.

So who is going to solve the problem? Did the crowd simultaneously yell PURPOSE ROBOTICS or am I imagining things…

We're building the thing neither of them has built yet. If that interests you, we'd love to talk.