We don’t mean to drone on about the future, but like it or not: it’s here. Pretty soon, Houstonians will be able to deliver their groceries, boardgames, and off-beat t-shirts from Walmart by way of the sky. Retailing giant Walmart has announced an expansion of its delivery drone service in partnership with Google’s Wing, launching at one hundred more stores in five additional cities.
Walmart first launched its drone delivery system back in 2021. Since then, the retailer has completed upwards of over 150,000 drone deliveries. Earlier this week, Walmart announced that it would be expanding its service into five more cities including Houston, Charlotte, Atlanta, Tampa, and Orlando. The announcement also highlighted Walmart as the first retailer to scale drone delivery across five states.
“As we look ahead, drone delivery will remain a key part of our commitment to redefining retail,” said Greg Cathey, senior vp of Walmart U.S. transformation and innovation. “We’re pushing the boundaries of convenience to better serve our customers, making shopping faster and easier than ever before.”
This expansion of our drone delivery service marks a significant milestone in that journey. As the first retailer to scale drone delivery, Walmart is once again demonstrating its commitment to leveraging technology to enhance our delivery offerings with a focus on speed.”
The Walmart drone delivery service will be available in Houston areas located within six miles of a drone delivery store. According to Walmart, the drone delivery takes less than 30 minutes for orders to arrive when selecting Express Delivery. The drones are available for select items capable of carrying weights from 2.4 – 10 lbs. The service is also subject to local weather conditions and vendor’s terms of service.
Walmart hasn’t announced a specific date as to when the drone delivery service will be available in Houston, but encourages interested parties to sign up at Wing’s website to be notified when available in their areas.
The expansion comes as Walmart aims to compete as a leader in delivery service with Amazon; the latter presently offers drone delivery in Houston-area community of College Station.