Walmart partners with Google parent Alphabet on metro Dallas drone program

Walmart is expanding its drone delivery service in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas, through a new partnership with Wing, a drone provider owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, the retail giant announced Thursday.  

The new drone program will launch in two of the company's Dallas-area Walmart Supercenters in the coming months, making delivery possible for an additional 60,000 homes, Prathibha Rajashekhar, Walmart U.S. senior vice president of innovation and automation, wrote in a blog post. 

The first Supercenter to get the new service is located at 8555 Preston Road in Frisco. Rajashekhar's blog post did not specify the location of the second, and in an email response to questions from WGB, a Walmart spokesperson declined to reveal the second location.

It’s unclear what the new relationship with Wing means for Walmart’s current partnerships with drone delivery companies DroneUp, Zipline and Flytrex. Rajashekhar did note, however, that the two stores under the Wing service will join Walmart’s existing network of 11 drone hubs in the Dallas area.  

The Walmart spokesperson said the company is “trialing drone delivery with multiple operators in different locations” and that the services “are completely separate from each other.” "Today, we’re focused on launching these first two stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” the spokesperson said.  

Walmart’s existing drone network in the Dallas area, operated by Virginia Beach, Virginia-based company DroneUp, was expanded by Walmart in December to capture the 2022 holiday shopping rush. At that time, the DroneUp partnership with Walmart also included stores in parts of Phoenix, Tampa and Orlando.  

Rajashekhar said Thursday that over the last two years, the Walmart drone delivery program has grown to 36 stores in seven states and has safely completed more than 10,000 deliveries.  

“Working with Wing directly aligns with our passion for finding innovative and eco-friendly last-mile delivery solutions to get customers the items they want, when they want them,” Rajashekhar said in the blog post. “With drones that can fly beyond visual line of sight, we’re able to unlock on-demand delivery for customers living within an approximate six-mile range of the stores that offer the service.” 

Shoppers can access the service by installing the Wing app. They can then order items like frozen treats, household essentials, last-minute meals and other products—even eggs, Rajashekhar said.  

Wing Chief Financial Officer Shannon Nash also wrote about the new partnership on Thursday, noting in a blog post that the drone launch would take place in the coming weeks and will “start with two Walmart Supercenters,” which will enable shoppers to purchase “a range of products, including quick meals, groceries, household essentials and over-the-counter medicines.” 

“This is a major milestone for Wing, as we continue down our path toward building capabilities to support some of the most significant delivery operations in the world,” Nash wrote. “Our technology is designed to complement existing delivery offerings, making overall systems more efficient and able to meet real customer needs.” 

Nash did not give a specific date for when the programs would launch, but she did note that the second store would be up and running before the end of the year.  

The post explained that the drones are automated and don’t require “a pilot with a joystick.” “Wing’s technology allows operators to oversee the system from a remote location, which means pilots won’t need to be stationed at stores or customer homes,” Nash wrote. “The aircraft essentially fly themselves, so each operator is approved to safely oversee many drones at the same time.” 

She added that Wing is also expanding its hours of operation to run from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and said the service is now available every day but Wednesdays. Deliveries are made in under 30 minutes, she said. 

“Wing’s drones are reliable, fast and safe. They cruise at 65 mph and use a tether to gently deliver even delicate items–like a carton of eggs–to very precise locations outside customer homes in urban and suburban environments,” she said. 

Walmart’s drone program offered roughly 20,000 items for delivery as of the beginning of 2023. Deliveries must weigh 10 pounds or less.