Walmart is reportedly testing the use of dark stores to provide faster delivery to customers. The company has opened a dark store in Dallas, plans to add one in Bentonville, Arkansas, and is considering adding more locations. Dark stores are smaller warehouses that are closed to the public and carry popular items in order to support a wider delivery radius and faster deliveries to customers. Walmart opened a few such stores in the mid-2010s but closed them after the pandemic. The company said in November that consumers were showing resilience while prioritizing delivery speed and convenience. Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said that the company’s eCommerce margins were benefiting from its delivery densification, increased penetration of paid expedited delivery orders, and automation of the supply chain. “As we scale our store-fulfilled delivery business, we’ve seen significant improvement in batch density with orders per delivery up 20%,” Rainey said. “In addition, the popularity of expedited delivery has resulted in more than 30% of orders coming from customers and members that elected to pay a convenience fee to receive their delivery in less than one hour or less than three hours.”