Walmart is planning a major expansion of its drone delivery service with Wing. Here's where it will land next
Our sky-mall future is officially here: Walmart and drone company Wing are rolling out drone delivery to a number of additional metro areas in what the companies are calling 'the world's largest drone delivery expansion' ever.
The service will be available for Walmart customers in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa by mid-year 2026, the companies said Thursday.
The announcement means that more than 100 Walmart stores in those cities will be folded into its Wing delivery partnership, including the 18 Supercenters in the Dallas area, where the two companies have already sent customer orders flying.
'Drone delivery is already real for millions of people in places like Dallas-Fort Worth, Wing CEO Adam Woodworth tells Fast Company. 'We're excited to make it real for more people than ever before.'
Identified flying objects
Business-to-consumer drone delivery still felt like far-off proposition not that long ago, but the market is poised to explode.
A recent report from PwC estimated that $251 million worth of goods were delivered globally to consumers by drone last year, a number that could reach $65.2 billion in 2034.
Walmart does not have the U.S. skies all to itself. Amazon, whose founder, Jeff Bezos, famously introduced the idea of drone delivery to American viewers on a 2013 episode of 60 Minutes, has set a goal of delivering 500 million packages a year via drone by the end of the 2020s.
Walmart first launched drone delivery with Wing in fall 2023, and it works in a fairly simple way: Customers place an order with Walmart (or through Wing's marketplace, or a third-party service such as DoorDash), and select drone delivery, while specifying an exact delivery location.
The drone is loaded up with a customer's order, takes off, and travels up to 65 miles per hour to the location. In all, customers can receive their orders much faster than through other delivery methods, as the drones can cut across the sky, avoiding traffic and other obstacles.
'We find drone delivery takes off in more densely populated areas where people rely on personal cars,' says Woodworth, such as sprawling cities like Dallas. 'Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida offer some of the same advantages Wing and Walmart have seen in Texas, with a real appetite from customers and government partners ready and excited to work with us and bring drone delivery to their communities.'
Walmart's leadership is likewise excited about the expansion.
'As we look ahead, drone delivery will remain a key part of our commitment to redefining retail,' said Greg Cathey, Walmart's senior vice president of U.S. transformation and innovation, in a statement. 'We're pushing the boundaries of convenience to better serve our customers, making shopping faster and easier than ever before.'
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