BENTONVILLE, Arkansas, June 4 (Reuters News) - Walmart ( WMT )

has added Subway meals to its fast-delivery service,

making meals from the sandwich chain available to customers

through its app, as the retailer expands its e-commerce

offerings in an increasingly competitive market.

Subway is Walmart's ( WMT ) largest in-store restaurant tenant, and

the retailer said on Thursday that it plans to expand the

fast-delivery service for the restaurant chain, which is already

live in a few states, to about 1,400 stores by late summer.

The initiative could be the beginning of a larger effort.

"Subway is a great starting point ... but naturally for us,

we want to make sure that any in-tenant location for our

customers has the ability to have delivery via express," Tracy

Poulliot, Walmart's ( WMT ) executive vice president of U.S. e-commerce

and marketing, said on Thursday on the sidelines of its annual

Associates Week event.

The retail bellwether is locked in fierce competition with

e-commerce giant Amazon for delivery dominance, and has been

testing drone delivery and AI-driven technology revamps to

manage inventory, as demand grows among more affluent customers.

The company uses its over 4,600 stores to fulfill online

deliveries, and it expanded its 30-minute delivery option for

groceries and other items to about 33 cities earlier this year.

Executives said in May that the option was its fastest

growing as consumers increasingly prefer convenience, and sales

utilizing store-fulfilled delivery had more than doubled over

the past two years, Walmart CFO John David Rainey told Wall

Street analysts in May.

It also comes against the backdrop of an increasingly

bifurcated economy in the United States, as lower-income

households, once Walmart's ( WMT ) key target consumer, temper spending

across the board.

Subway has been available in-store at Walmart's ( WMT ) supercenters

since 2004. Fast food chains such as Taco Bell, McDonald's and

Wendy's also have footprints at Walmart ( WMT ) stores, along with

several regional operators such as Auntie Anne's.