Do you like shopping at a warehouse club, but don’t like the experience of actually walking around inside a warehouse club? BJ’s Wholesale Club is following the not-especially-hot trend of in-store pickup, allowing members to pick up online orders at their local club. They have to go fetch any perishable grocery items themselves, though.

The service will be available in all of the chain’s 213 stores along the East Coast beginning immediately. It works like other retailers’ in-store pickup or curbside pickup options: members place their orders online, then receive an e-mail when their order has been selected and is ready.

This won’t be the curbside pickup service that many retailers have adopted, including CVS Health’s announcement just this week. You’ll still have to get out of your car and walk into the club, and wait in line behind customers with bulky items and members who lost their cards at the customer service desk. Update: BJ’s tells us that Pick Up & Pay users will have their own separate line at the customer service desk, and won’t have to wait in the regular line.

Retailers and consumers still haven’t collectively decided whether we like in-store pickup or not. Retailers encouraged customers to use it this holiday season, but encountered logistical problems. Researchers have found that it doesn’t actually save shoppers any time, even though it’s explicitly marketed that way.

(via Chain Store Age)

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