View original at www.businessinsider.com

Walmart’s Alphabot is housed in a 20,000-square-foot fulfillment center attached to one of its stores. Business Insider/Hayley Peterson Walmart is using robots to pick and pack online grocery orders at a store in Salem, New Hampshire. The machines, part of a system called Alphabot , will soon be rolled out to more stores. We visited the test site this week to get a behind-the-scenes look at Alphabot in action and see how the world’s largest retailer is preparing for the future of online food shopping. Jefferies analysts have crowned Walmart’s online grocery system as "best in breed" compared to rivals including Kroger , Amazon , and Target . Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories. Sign up for Business Insider’s retail newsletter, The Drive-Thru. Walmart is betting on grocery-shopping robots to help it win the battle against Amazon and Kroger for customers’ food spending. The company has been quietly testing the machines, which are part of a system called Alphabot, in a small town in New Hampshire for months. Walmart is now preparing to roll out Alphabot, which can pick grocery orders up to 10 times faster than a human, to two more stores. I traveled to the test site this week to get a behind-the-scenes look at Alphabot in action and see how the world’s largest retailer is preparing for the future of online food shopping. The test site is located at a Walmart store in Salem, New Hampshire, about 40 minutes northwest of Boston. Business Insider/Hayley Peterson When I arrived, Walmart representatives led me to the back of the store, through a pair of double doors and down this narrow, fluorescent-lit hallway. Business Insider/Hayley Peterson The hallway led us into the rectangular, 20,000-square-foot warehouse that’s home to Alphabot. Business Insider/Hayley Peterson The warehouse is small compared to […]