New Ways to Shop, Holiday Traditions to Keep: Walmart is Ready for the Season

BENTONVILLE, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 7, 2026--

The holidays bring a mix of big and small moments: finding the perfect gift, gathering around the table, keeping up with traditions and the occasional “we forgot the batteries” moment.

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This year, Walmart is making it easier to enjoy all of it.

Customers can shop our vast assortment of items across gifts, groceries, everyday essentials and more, then choose the speed and shopping experience that works for their day. Need it at the door fast? Express delivery! Heading out the door? Express Pickup will have an order ready in as soon as one hour. Shopping the aisles? New tools can help point you straight to what you’re looking for.

When customers shop at Walmart, they’ll spend less time managing the holiday check list and more time enjoying the people and traditions that make the season special.

New This Holiday Season

Making Spirits Bright with New Express Pickup
Walmart is introducing Express Pickup, giving customers and members a new option for those moments when an hour can make all the difference.

Place an order in the Walmart app and it can be ready for curbside pickup in as soon as one hour. Walmart+ members have access to Express Pickup without a fee, another way membership helps save time and makes Walmart even more convenient when members need it most. Express Pickup is available at 500 stores today and will expand nationwide in the coming weeks, in time to shop for the Thanksgiving meal.

Find Holiday Favorites in a Flash
Holiday shopping is full of favorites you only look for once a year, from the secret ingredient in Grandma’s recipe to the exact stocking stuffer someone requests year after year. This season, Walmart can help customers find those items faster than ever with Shop to Light.

While shopping in-store, customers can use the Walmart app to search for an item. When they’re in the right section, an LED light on the shelf flashes to guide them directly to it.

Making Shopping More Accessible
This year, we’re excited to introduce American Sign Language interpreting services in our U.S. stores through Sorenson; just scan the QR code at service desks to connect with an interpreter.

This service joins sensory friendly hours, Caroline’s Carts, and a suite of other accessible experiences aimed at making shopping more comfortable and enjoyable. This holiday season, Walmart is helping families shop in the ways that work best for them, whether in store or online. Learn more about accessible shopping experiences.

Holiday Traditions You Can Still Count on

However Fast the Holidays Move, Walmart Can Keep Up
Forgot the whipped cream after you already started dessert? Need batteries for the toy that definitely said “batteries not included”? Realized at 4 p.m. you still need a gift for the host? This year, *42.4% of shoppers expect to host or attend three to four holiday gatherings. Whatever pops up, Walmart has a delivery option to fit the moment.

Drone Delivery when you need a handful of items in minutes
30-Minute-or-Less for those “need it now” moments
One-hour Express when the clock is ticking
Three-hour On-Demand for the same-day list
Scheduled when planning ahead works best

Home for the Holidays
Our stores are ready to serve customers and members heading into the holiday season. Associates work hard to make the season memorable, so it’s important we take care of them by creating the space for them to celebrate.

Stores will be closed again on Thanksgiving and Christmas this year so our associates can enjoy the holidays with their loved ones.

One of the Greatest Holiday Traditions: Giving Back
Through A Season to Spark Good, customers and members can take part in The Salvation Army Angel Tree and Red Kettle, while Walmart customers can Round Up online to support Operation Homefront in November and The Salvation Army in December.

However you choose to take part, Walmart and Sam’s Club are making it easier to make giving back part of the traditions you share with family, friends and neighbors all season long.

*Walmart 2026 Scintilla Holiday Survey

About Walmart

Walmart Inc. (Nasdaq: WMT) is a people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer helping people save money and live better — anytime and anywhere — in stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, approximately 270 million customers and members visit more than 10,750 stores and numerous eCommerce websites in 19 countries. With fiscal year 2025 revenue of $681 billion, Walmart employs approximately 2.1 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy, and employment opportunity.

Someone holds a phone displaying the Toy Shop in the Walmart app.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike has regained consciousness and is able to speak after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection last week, and her attorneys are heading to court Wednesday to request more information about what went wrong.

Pike, 50, survived even after executioners tried to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

Pike’s attorneys are set to attend a status hearing on the case in Nashville on Wednesday, where they are planning to request a court order compelling the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence in the case and provide more information.

“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking and continues to receive critical medical care,” attorneys for Pike said in a statement. Pike’s prognosis remains unclear and, at a minimum, she faces a lengthy recovery, the attorneys said. Pike's arms were burned and blistered after the attempted lethal injection and she is handcuffed to the hospital bed, they said.

The failed execution has renewed scrutiny over how states carry out the death penalty, in particular the use of lethal injection. Texas was set on Wednesday to carry out the first execution in the U.S. since Tennessee attempted to put Pike to death.

Pike’s attorneys are seeking a court order to require the prison system to preserve information from the attempted execution, including drug lot numbers, needles, execution logs and other information.

Attorneys with the Tennessee attorney general’s office wrote in a Tuesday court filing that a court order is unnecessary because the prison system is “obliged to maintain this evidence in other cases and must assure it is preserved.” They said state officials have taken “the necessary steps to obtain medical care for Pike and ascertain what occurred.”

Republican Gov. Bill Lee called what happened “deeply disturbing” and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” The governor postponed the state’s only other execution scheduled for this year.

The state's prison chief resigned in the wake of the failed execution.

Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream. Pike’s attorneys wrote in their court filing that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown.”

The attempted execution got underway around 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 when Pike was given a chance to make a final statement. About five minutes later, Pike raised her head and said her arm was hurting. At some point she appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard audibly breathing until media were escorted from the witness room at 8:53 p.m. An ambulance arrived at the prison at 9:14 p.m. to take Pike to a hospital.

Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike’s legal team, said it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like, and whether her competency could be restored so the state can try again to execute her.

This photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)

Photographs of Colleen Slemmer, who was murdered in 1995, are displayed outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)