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Four years after Walmart (WMT+0.77%) launched drone delivery during pandemic lockdowns, it is scaling up at 100 stores in five states—Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas—in a partnership with drone company Wing (GOOGL-1.57%), an Alphabet subsidiary, and San Francisco startup Zipline.
Its drones fly within a six-mile range of each store, operating within FAA guidelines and promising delivery in 30 minutes or less.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of convenience to better serve our customers, making shopping faster and easier than ever before,” said Greg Cathey, a senior VP.
By 2023, Walmart had drone delivery available in 36 stores, particularly in the Dallas–Fort Worth area; 1.8 million households in the city, or 75% of the population, could get drone delivery from Walmart for small products that fell within a certain weight limit. Most people order fresh food, pharmaceutical products or ice cream.
“People all around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex have made drone delivery part of their normal shopping habits over the past year,” said Wing CEO Adam Woodworth. “Now we’re excited to share this ultra-fast delivery experience with millions more people across many more U.S. cities.” In 2024, Walmart discontinued drone service in Salt Lake City and Phoenix, saying consumer demand there was too small to be sustainable.
Walmart’s primary competitor, Amazon (AMZN-2.87%), launched its long-anticipated drone-delivery program in 2022, but only in two cities: Tolleson, Arizona, and College Station, Texas. The Texas town of 125,000 people has not taken kindly to the drones’ presence; one resident at a 2024 city council meeting described them as “the noise equivalent of a flying chainsaw.”
Amazon Prime Air also suspended operations for the first three months of 2025, to deal with an altitude-sensor issue triggered by dust in the air. In March, the company did not renew its lease in College Station, though the company was vague about its future plans there. Last month it received FAA approval to deliver cellphones and other tech products.
No retail drones have been shot down since a Florida man was ordered to pay Walmart $5,000 for shooting down one of its drones in July 2024.