Walmart leans into quick-service restaurant partnerships to sharpen its delivery offer, analysts say

Walmart is pushing deeper into quick-service restaurant partnerships, aiming to make prepared meals a more central part of its omnichannel experience rather than something shoppers pick up elsewhere. A Yahoo Finance report highlighted an argument from RBC Capital Markets that Walmart could benefit competitively by collaborating with fast-food brands and integrating them into the retailer’s commerce and delivery workflows.

The latest step comes with Walmart’s expansion of “Express Delivery” from in-store restaurants, beginning with Subway. Walmart said customers in eligible areas can order Subway directly through the Walmart app or, either as a standalone meal order or combined with Walmart Express Delivery, so shoppers can check out once and receive groceries and freshly prepared meals together.

Walmart’s Subway relationship dates back to 2004, and the company said Subway is its largest in-store restaurant tenant. In its June 4 announcement, Walmart also described Subway restaurants inside Walmart as serving millions of shared customers, and it positioned the effort as a way to increase convenience by bundling restaurant food into the retailer’s existing delivery infrastructure.

Behind the scenes, Walmart says it built a new restaurant e-commerce platform to manage restaurant menus and allow item customization, ordering, fulfillment, and delivery inside the Walmart experience. The company said it uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to support tasks such as dynamic menu configuration and to predict preparation times, order readiness, and delivery promises.

Walmart also described the operational challenge of synchronizing restaurant preparation with driver pickup and delivery timing. In its technology update, the company said its platform coordinates restaurant and grocery workflows so frozen items stay cold and prepared meals stay fresh, including routing logic for combined orders. It further said it updated the Spark Driver experience with restaurant-specific pickup and delivery workflows, including item validation and proof-of-delivery steps.

Walmart’s restaurant play is not limited to Subway. Industry coverage in recent months has described the retailer expanding a roster of in-store dining partners, including fast-casual concepts that operate in small footprints inside Walmart stores. For example, Grocery Dive reported that Walmart would open Crave Hot Dogs & BBQ locations using a “Crave Express” model at select stores, and it also described other in-store fast-food options such as poke partnerships and in-store hot-dog and pizza models through additional restaurant chains.

The strategic rationale is straightforward: prepared meals are a category where shoppers compare convenience and speed as much as price. By embedding quick-service restaurants in stores and tying them to rapid delivery, Walmart is trying to capture more of the “meal occasion” spend while reinforcing its broader positioning as a one-stop shop. Still, Walmart did not disclose how many stores will ultimately support the restaurant ordering experience, what share of restaurant demand comes from combined grocery-and-meal carts, or any financial targets tied to the partnerships.