There is an empty townhome in Sewickley. No one lives there, but the fridge is stocked full of food and drinks.

The home is one of a few in the country being rented by Walmart for the sole purpose of training employees for the company’s new in-home delivery service.

Walmart announced last year it was launching in-home delivery in 23 locations across Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Vero Beach, Fla. With the service, called InHome, a Walmart employee who is vetted, trained and equipped with a body camera recording a live stream, does your shopping, delivers your groceries to your home and puts the items away for you.

Ten Walmart stores around Western Pennsylvania offer the service.

“We really love Pittsburgh not only because it’s got great Walmart coverage and a lot of interest in online grocery pickup but also because it’s a very tech-forward city,” said Alma Chapa, a brand strategist with Walmart’s InHome team.

The corporation is focusing on security and respect for customers’ homes, said Chapa. Employees are being trained at the Sewickley test house, a modern home with stone siding and a neat, contemporary kitchen.

“It’s a big deal to go into someone’s home, and we take that very seriously,” she said.

There are safeguards in place. For example, the smart lock used for in-home service is connected to a mobile application that Walmart associates use throughout the delivery process and will not unlock unless several factors are true:

• It must be the scheduled delivery time.

• The associate has checked in with the customer’s specific order.

• The live stream is functioning.

Only when these criteria are met can the employee press a button on the mobile app to unlock the door.

Customers interested in InHome delivery must have a smart lock installed. Chapa said Walmart partners with Level Lock, a smart lock company, to install locks for customers at a reduced price ($49.95).

Before entering a customer’s home, the employee puts paper booties over his or her shoes to prevent tracking mud into the house.

“There are so many little ways that we can make sure we are treating your home with respect,” Chapa said.

Once inside, the associate unloads all perishable items into the refrigerator. Chapa said employees take a special course on how to properly stock and organize a fridge. All non-perishable items are left on the customer’s counter top.

Nick Burmaster, an InHome associate, said that on average, he spends a total of about five to 10 minutes within a customer’s home.

Chapa said employees must have worked at Walmart for at least one year and are put through at least four separate background checks before coming onto the InHome team.

The program builds on Walmart’s existing grocery pickup and same-day grocery delivery services, Chapa said. While she declined to disclose how many customers in the Pittsburgh region are already taking advantage of the service, Chapa said it is growing in popularity.

Other grocery chains in the area offer online ordering and delivery — including Aldi, Giant Eagle, Shop’n Save and some independent grocers. Golden Dawn, in New Kensington, has offered home delivery and curbside pick-up for years. Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market, a two-store chain in Leechburg and Kittanning, delivers groceries to around 50 customers every Tuesday.

But Walmart has streamlined the process for everyday use and is the only establishment that brings the groceries directly into the home and unloads them.

Since launching in three cities, people have checked on Walmart’s InHome website to see if their home qualified for the program around 15,000 times.

To be eligible to receive InHome delivery, a customer must be located within a 10-mile radius of a participating store. InHome service costs $19.95 a month for unlimited deliveries, though items will cost the same amount as they would in the store.

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