Walmart, a name synonymous with affordable prices, great stores and a wide selection of products, is now preparing to offer another service that takes the company beyond its traditional retail business.
The retail giant has built one of the largest retail businesses in the world selling groceries, household essentials, electronics, clothing, and just about anything a shopper could need.
Now he wants to help businesses keep their own buildings running.
The retail giant has introduced Upstream Facility Services, a new business that brings Walmart’s in-house maintenance operation to commercial customers.
The service builds on systems Walmart already uses to support thousands of Walmart and Sam’s Club locations nationwide.
“We’ve spent years building one of the largest in-house facility services operations in the country. Upstream takes that capability beyond our walls,” RJ Zanes, vice president of Walmart Facility Services, said in the official announcement.
Zanes added that the new service will provide “skilled technicians and real-time visibility to help businesses operate with fewer interruptions.”
This marks an unusual but logical expansion step for Walmart, given that the company already has training, technical and technology systems in place to maintain its own physical footprint.
And now the company is ready to turn these internal capabilities into a nationwide service and sell them to other companies.
Walmart is turning maintenance into a business
The move comes as Walmart is remodeling more than 650 stores into supercenters and neighborhood markets, with 20 grand openings scheduled for 2026 and early 2027.
Walmart’s goal is to make shopping “feel easy, intuitive and connected,” while keeping the promise of everyday low prices.
More Walmart
As large-scale remodels and openings continue, Walmart has now launched Upstream installation service, Designed for other commercial businesses and companies that also operate in multiple locations.
Walmart understands that maintenance delays can quickly hurt revenue and the customer experience, both critical in the service industry.
This new service will focus on the air conditioning, refrigeration, general maintenance, electricity and plumbing sectors.
Its model combines urgent repairs, preventative maintenance and predictive maintenance to help customers reduce downtime, avoid recurring problems and extend equipment life.
Through Upstream, Walmart is prepared to provide “end-to-end solutions with an approach that addresses facility repairs at the root.”
Walmart shares are up 14% so far this year.Shutterstock
Upstream starts in limited states
For now, Walmart is licensed to serve only a few states as it continually expands its presence.
Upstream currently actively serves commercial facilities, quick-service restaurants, retail establishments and financial institutions in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
Walmart is using its existing field network and gradually expanding the service as licenses allow.
The company believes its physical footprint is a big advantage, noting that most of its technicians are located near Walmart facilities, which puts them close to many commercial businesses and allows for faster response times.
Related: Walmart makes a change to be more like Costco
This can be encouraging for companies located in such locations and struggling to coordinate local repair providers in a timely manner.
This new service also solves a common business problem for companies with multiple locations.
Walmart promises that at Upstream they will get a single supplier to handle multiple facility maintenance needs, especially useful for places that need quick repairs, like convenience stores or restaurants, since delayed repairs can ruin inventory.
Upstream also presents itself as a data-backed service, offering customers ticket reporting and insights, on-demand reporting, ticket prioritization, root cause and repeat issue analysis, and cost and lifecycle optimization.
Walmart goes beyond retail
Last year, Walmart reached a $1 trillion valuation and expanded into advertising, marketplace services and fulfillment, essentially positioning it as a leading technology company in the retail sector.
It is continually diversifying revenue streams to gain an advantage in this highly competitive market. While groceries and goods are high-volume categories, they can also be lower-margin categories, given changes in tariffs and inflation.
As such, this new service, Upstream, can help Walmart diversify its revenue through business-to-business relationships.
In its recent fourth-quarter results, Walmart reported $713.2 billion in full-year revenue, up 4.7%, with a global advertising business of about $6.4 billion, up 46%.
The company noted that around 280 million customers and members visit more than 10,900 stores and e-commerce site in 19 countries every week. The company also currently employs approximately 2.1 million associates worldwide.
So while a new revenue stream will add to Walmart’s current success, it’s also different from maintaining its own stores. Walmart will have to consistently provide the best service to customers and make sure to prioritize customers’ needs over its own remodels.
Walmart promises that its model is designed to scale without compromising service quality or responsiveness, and that it comes with trained and licensed technicians who ensure “the job is done safely, correctly, and in accordance with applicable requirements on every service call.”
Related: Amazon and Walmart can’t stop a $12 billion theft problem
This story was originally published by TheStreet on April 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
