A 'cavernous' Walmart e-commerce fulfillment center opens in Pennsylvania

A large new Walmart fulfillment center officially opened in Franklin County on July 13.

The cavernous warehouse building includes 1.8 million square feet of space to build out Walmart’s growing e-commerce business.

The opening comes as Walmart is trying to compete with e-commerce giant Amazon. Walmart+, its retail subscription service, lags far behind Amazon Prime. Walmart’s current share of the online market, 7%, is roughly one sixth the size of Amazon’s 39.5%.

Walmart notes the facility is a fulfillment center, not a distribution center. The difference is that distribution centers handle products that go to stores, while fulfillment centers process items that are then shipped directly to customers.

The facility joins Walmart’s six other distribution centers and four fulfillment centers in Pennsylvania.

The center will create 600 full time jobs, according to Walmart, and will serve the entire Northeast.

More Walmart jobs are expected in Franklin County, as the company also announced its plans to build another fulfillment center in Greencastle. The facility would employ another 1,000 people and is scheduled to open in 2024.