Walmart Whoa! Here are TWO big pieces of news. First, there is a WalMart in Mountain View??? Second, there IS a Wal-Mart in Mountain View.........at least an incubator. Yes, WalMart has got the tech craving and has created a technology-startup incubator to help it reshape the retail shopping experience. Think virtual reality, drones, payments, self driving cars, etc. So, next time in The Valley and you need some new flip flops head over to store No.8 and....................oh, its not a real store, it's an incubator. My bad.

(Bill Taylor/CEO)

"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is creating a technology-startup incubator in Silicon Valley to identify changes that will reshape the retail experience, including virtual reality, autonomous vehicle and drone delivery and personalized shopping.

The incubator will be called Store No. 8, a reference to a Wal-Mart location where the company experimented with new store layouts. Marc Lore, chief executive officer of Wal-Mart’s e-commerce operations, announced the incubator Monday at the ShopTalk conference in Las Vegas...

...Store No. 8 is the latest example of Lore’s influence on Wal-Mart. In January, Lore announced management changes and a new incubation and strategic-partnerships division, to be led by Seth Beal. Lore gave more details about the division, including its name and areas of focus, at the conference on Monday.

The incubator will partner with startups, venture capitalists and academics to promote innovation in robotics, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence, according to Wal-Mart. The goal is to have a fast-moving, separate entity to identify emerging technologies that can be developed and used across Wal-Mart."

Read Full Article at Bloomberg