Walmart is storing third-party marketplace items in store backrooms as it and Amazon increasingly borrow each other’s core strategies

Walmart confirmed it is testing a program to store third-party marketplace merchandise in the backrooms of select supercenters, allowing those items to be delivered at the same ultrafast speeds as locally stocked groceries and apparel rather than shipping from more distant Walmart facilities. The move is part of a broader pattern of the two retail giants converging on each other's turf, with Amazon simultaneously piloting supercenter-style warehouse-and-store combinations offering groceries and prepared foods, smaller-format fulfillment centers targeting 30-minute delivery, and a push into rural communities with new local facilities. Walmart's advantage is its 4,600 stores within reach of 95% of the U.S. population, while Amazon's edge is its massive selection and platform scale, and the race is now to see which company can successfully absorb the other's model first.