Walmart is launching a new membership program

A Walmart employee — (Image credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Walmart on Tuesday unveiled its new Walmart Plus membership program, Reuters reports. The retail giant's chief customer officer, Janey Whiteside, touted the program as "the ultimate life hack" for customers. Starting Sept. 15, subscribers who pay $98 a year or $12.95 per month will get unlimited free delivery and a fuel discount of up to 5 cents per gallon at 2,000 Walmart, Murphy USA, and Murphy Express fuel stations. Members of the loyalty program also will be able to use an app to scan and pay for their own purchases, avoiding checkout lines. The program is considered a rival to Amazon's Prime subscription program, which offers free expedited shipping, streaming video, and other perks at $119 a year or $12.99 per month.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.