Walmart Wants Every In-Store Restaurant On Express Delivery. Subway Went First.

On June 4, Walmart announced its first restaurant integration within Express Delivery: customers can now order Subway meals through the Walmart app or Walmart.com, on their own or alongside a grocery and essentials order, for a flat Express Delivery fee. The meals arrive in as little as 30 minutes, and Subway pricing matches the in-restaurant menu, with some exclusive items at participating in-store locations. The service is live in select stores across Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, and Walmart says it will reach roughly 1,400 locations, effectively every Subway operating inside a Walmart, by the end of the summer.

The mechanics sit in Subway’s own paperwork. As of June 1, Subway began requiring its franchisees inside Walmart stores to take part in Walmart’s third-party delivery program, according to Restaurant Dive’s reading of the chain’s franchise disclosure document. The order does not go to a Walmart picker the way a store-fulfilled grocery order does: it routes to the point-of-sale system of the restaurant the customer selects, the franchisee prepares it, and Walmart pays the franchisee weekly for the prior week’s orders. Restaurant Dive reported there is no fee to participate for now, though credit card processing fees apply to the transactions.

For Subway, which has operated inside Walmart since 2004 and is the retailer’s largest in-store restaurant tenant, the channel opens a new sales outlet at a time when the chain has been closing traditional US restaurants.

Walmart has framed Subway as a starting point. Per Modern Retail, the company built a restaurant ordering experience inside its app and site that lets customers customize a meal down to individual toppings and share one checkout with their other items. Tracy Poulliot, Walmart’s executive vice president of U.S. e-commerce and marketing, said the goal is for any in-store tenant location to be available through Express Delivery. Subway is not the only restaurant inside Walmart stores; according to Reuters, the roster also includes Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Auntie Anne’s.

The plan does not stop at Walmart’s own tenants. Greg Cathey, the company’s senior vice president of digital fulfillment transformation, told reporters the service could eventually reach restaurants beyond Walmart’s stores, noting that “almost all quick-service restaurant brands are located within five miles of Walmart.” Behind the scenes, Cathey said, the platform uses AI to handle restaurant prep time, order picking, routing and driver timing. The nearest precedent is Sam’s Club, which began folding in-store café pizzas into delivery orders last year.

Subway delivery is live in six states now, with the rest of its in-Walmart locations due by the end of the summer. Cathey has already pointed past them, calling the expansion a natural progression to work through over time.

Winning With Walmart

Winning With Walmart is an independent platform for suppliers, sellers, solution providers, and industry experts.

Articles are developed by staff editors, contributing experts, and trusted partners.

Some are researched and drafted with the assistance of AI tools and are reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by Winning With Walmart editors before publication.

Editorial judgment, sourcing decisions, and final approval rest with the publication's human editors in every case.

We are committed to accuracy and fairness. If you believe this article contains an error, we welcome your feedback.