Walmart and Wing expand drone delivery to over 270 stores

If you ever needed a carton of milk or a box of diapers flown right to your backyard by a flying robot, your grocery run is about to get a whole lot more sci-fi. Walmart, the retail giant with billions in sales, and its partner Wing plan to offer aerial delivery from more than 270 stores across the country by next year. This massive expansion builds on plans announced at the start of this year to scale drone delivery to an additional 150 Walmart locations. Currently, Walmart offers drone delivery services to customers in the metropolitan Houston, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Orlando and Charlotte markets. New markets listed as coming soon include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cincinnati, New Orleans, St. Louis and Tampa. Wing drones can cruise at up to 60 mph and carry up to 5 pounds, including fresh and packaged groceries. Once drone delivery becomes available near you, customers can request the service directly through the Walmart app or website. Shoppers can also place orders through the Wing app. Greg Cathey, senior vice president of eCommerce transformation at Walmart, said expanding drone delivery to places like Seattle and Denver is about giving customers a practical option when they need something quickly. After all, nobody ever got stuck in traffic in the living room, but your neighborhood mail carrier might start looking nervously at the sky. This means if you run out of dinner ingredients while cooking, a small flying machine might drop your groceries right on your lawn instead of waiting for a delivery van. You will just need to make sure your kids do not try to trade baseball cards with the delivery drone.