**Walmart to Expand Drone Delivery Services to Five States**

Walmart has announced plans to broaden its drone delivery services, aiming to launch the faster delivery option at 100 stores in cities such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa within the next year. This expansion will extend Walmart's drone delivery footprint to five states, including Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas.

Customers in these areas will be able to request drone deliveries through the Wing app, Walmart's chosen drone operator for this initiative. The drones will have a delivery range of up to six miles from the stores. This move is a part of Walmart's strategy to enhance convenience and compete with rivals like Amazon, alongside its established reputation for low prices. The retailer currently boasts an Express Delivery service that can fulfill orders in as little as 30 minutes and the InHome subscription service, which delivers items directly into customers' refrigerators.

Despite its ambitious goals, Walmart’s journey into drone deliveries has seen a slow rollout. Initially announced three years ago, the company aimed to reach 4 million households across several states with its DroneUp collaboration. Walmart has completed over 150,000 drone deliveries since 2021, with items such as eggs, ice cream, pet food, and fresh fruits being some of the most popular orders.

Walmart also mentioned that more than half of the over 150,000 items available in their stores could be delivered by drones. They have been actively testing and scaling their drone delivery services in areas like Northwest Arkansas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In addition to Wing, several other operators such as Zipline and Flytrex have been involved in Walmart’s drone delivery operations.

Amazon, Walmart’s main competitor in this space, has also been slow to expand its drone deliveries. Amazon’s Prime Air service had set a goal to deliver 500 million packages per year by the end of the decade but has faced its own set of challenges.

Walmart's senior vice president of U.S. transformation and innovation, Greg Cathey, noted that customer demand for expanding drone delivery services remains high. Cathey highlighted that customers often use the service for urgent items, with drone deliveries typically completed in 30 minutes or less. Meanwhile, Walmart is testing the inclusion of a drone delivery option within its app in the Dallas area, priced at $19.99 or free for Walmart+ members.