Walmart Delivery Takes to the Skies With New Drone Partner

Walmart is expanding its commitment to drone delivery with the addition of Wing, an on-demand provider powered by Google’s parent company Alphabet, as one of its partners. In the coming months, the service will be offered from two stores in the Dallas metro area.

Wing’s service from the two Texas locations will enable Walmart to reach 60,000 additional homes that are within a 6-mile range of the select stores. The retailer has an existing network of 11 drone hubs already operating in the Dallas area.

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“Working with Wing directly aligns with our passion for finding innovative and eco-friendly last-mile delivery solutions to get customers the items they want, when they want them,” wrote Prathibha Rajashekhar, SVP innovation and automation, Walmart U.S., in a company blog post. “With drones that can fly beyond visual line of sight, we’re able to unlock on-demand delivery for customers living within an approximate 6-mile range of the stores that offer the service.”

Once the service is operational, customers can use the Wing app to determine if their home is within the drone delivery range. They can then order items ranging from frozen treats and household essentials to last-minute meal solutions and even fragile items like eggs.

In January, Walmart reported that, along with its partner DroneUp, it operated drone delivery hubs in seven states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Walmart brought three of those states online last December, including Arizona, Florida and Texas.

Shoppers in the Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando and Dallas areas can place drone delivery orders, and the retailer says it is uniquely positioned to offer drone delivery at scale and provide even more customers with the option of drone delivery in the years ahead.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart operates more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites around the world. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named it one of its Retailers of the Century.