Walmart Launches Drone Delivery Service in Arkansas, Will Expand.

Foxxee · ‎10-03-2014

UPS and Amazon to follow.

Walmart has officially launched deliveries by air. Drones are flying around Northwest Arkansas dropping packages, It’s a bizarre scene in the ozark as America's largest retailer is breaking ground yet again.

(Cute little thing.)

Walmart will transport goods like cough medicine, thermometers, and other health related products via drone to Arkansas customers who live within a 1.15 mile radius from a base outside a store in Farmington, Arkansas.

Walmart is now delivering diapers and food by drone (if you live close to this Arkansas store)

Walmart’s drone delivery comes via a partnership with DroneUp, a startup out of Virginia that provides drone technology and services.

According to Walmart, flight engineers will control and guide each deliver to ensure the order arrives safely.

The service will be expanded to two larger cities in the Northwest Arkansas metro which is one of the fastest growing in the nation. Rogers, AR and Bentonville, AR will be added next in the coming months.

Walmart says it eventually plans to provide the service over longer distances.

Walmart launched its first commercial US drone delivery service within a 50-mile radius of Pea Ridge, Arkansas — dropping parachute-laden packages from an autonomous Zipline plane to a “hand-selected group of recipients.”

Not so cute. Looks like a bug.

“When we invested in DroneUp earlier this year, we envisioned a drone delivery operation that could be quickly executed and replicated across multiple stores,” said Tom Ward, senior vice president of last mile at Walmart. “Opening our first hub within months of our initial concept showcases DroneUp’s ability to safely execute drone delivery operations with speed.”

The announcement marks the first multi-site commercial drone delivery service, Walmart has a longer history with drones.

In 2020, Walmart first experimented with drones to provide Covid-19 testing kits to customers homes with the help of Quest Diagnostics and DroneUp. Walmart was able to deliver within a 1-mile radius in North Las Vegas and Cheektowaga, New York to the backyards of customers homes.

Amazon, Alphabet, and UPS are all reportedly among other companies looking to join Walmart in aerial delivery options.

(Watch for Drone Traffic Controllers.)

From DC Patriot website.

If interested, go to "The Verge" website to see how they are doing this and a video of a drone delivering a package.

Search, "Walmart is now delivering diapers and food by drone (if you live close to this Arkansas store)"

MG Chris · ‎09-10-2020

I live in NWA, and my local store is the "store of the future" so everything gets tested in my store. It's kind of cool to see the new ideas as they roll out but it also is a pain. Even though they are respectful it can be hard to shop in my store. All the vendors and people from the home office are always there in groups and trying to move around them. If they are shooting ads then you are trying to navigate around all that hoopla.

ValuSkr · ‎03-15-2014

UPS has a hard time delivering to the correct address even when a human does it. Will a drone be more - or less - accurate?

A few weeks ago, I had to take a very heavy box that had been misdelivered to my front door to the neighbor's. I'd called UPS, hoping they'd come and get it. But, after three days, I wanted it off the front patio.

SilleeMee · ‎05-22-2016

Drones make good target practice for shooters around some places here.

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

@SilleeMee wrote:
Drones make good target practice for shooters around some places here.

@SilleeMee LOL!!! I was going to say that! I grew up there and some hillbilly will take a pot shot before the week is out. And I can say "hillbilly" and laugh because I IS one!

I am saying the sight would be certainly tempting for target practice!

SharkE · ‎08-19-2010

Thieves will find a way to blow a hole thru that theory , also.

They follow UPS trucks now, so, they will just have marksmen to blow 'em out of the sky like shooting at clay pigeons.

SilleeMee · ‎05-22-2016

@SharkE wrote:
Thieves will find a way to blow a hole thru that theory , also.
They follow UPS trucks now, so, they will just have marksmen to blow 'em out of the sky like shooting at clay pigeons.

No need to yell "PULL!" either.

Duckncover · ‎07-16-2021

We live within four miles of a small executive airport. No drones are allowed in the airspace, and I have too many neighbors with shotguns to ever think it will be a problem.😬 I hate going into Walmart. It is always a beat-down. People shopping in their pajamas, unruly children running everywhere, or my personal favorite, the panhandlers who harrass you for cash while you are shopping inside the store. Add the online-orders being filled with their big carts that block half of the aisles and it is a real little slice of heaven.