The 16-foot pickup tower in the Andalusia Wal-Mart is now ready to use, and store manager Earl Alsobrooks said that this technology will change the way customers think about shopping.

“With this new technology, customers can pick up orders in less than a minute, Alsobrooks said. “That convenience makes shopping trips quicker and easier than ever.”

Pickup Towers  function like high-tech vending machines, capable of fulfilling a customer’s online order in less than a minute.

In the past, customers who ordered online for in-store pick-up had to walk to the back of the Wal-Mart store. Alsobrooks said that with the installation of the new tower, they won’t be using the back pickup area anymore.

“Everything will be in the front of the store now,” Alsobrooks said. “Employees will get a notification of what needs to be put in, then they will take the item and put it in the pick up tower.”

He said that this technology will make things a lot easier for customers.

“It should really improve pickups,” Alsobrooks said. “Everything will be on their phones. All they have to do is open Wal-Mart.com on their phones and scan their order barcode and it will come out of the machine in less than a minute.”

Customers have already expressed their liking of the new technology, Alsobrooks said.

“Every one that I have talked to said they love it,” Alsobrooks said. “Again, it is just super easy and fast.”

Along with the pickup tower, Wal-Mart also added 20 self-checkout machines to accommodate customers, but Alsobrooks said that maintaining them is still a learning process.

“We are still learning the ins and outs of the machines,” Alsobrooks said. “People are pretty split about whether they like them or not, but we did this all for the customer’s convenience.”