Walmart has officially rolled out drone delivery in metro Atlanta, giving some shoppers the option to have small orders dropped off by air in just a few minutes.
The service launched Dec. 3 from six Walmart Supercenters in Woodstock, Conyers, Dallas, Hiram, McDonough, and Loganville. Customers who live within range of those stores can place orders through the Wing app and have items flown directly to their homes.
The drones are used to deliver light items such as groceries, household essentials, and over-the-counter medicine. Once an order is placed, a drone flies to the home and gently lowers the package to the ground using a tether. Customers don’t need to be outside to receive it.
Most deliveries take about five minutes from the time the drone is dispatched.
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The Atlanta rollout is part of a much larger expansion plan. Earlier this year, Walmart and Wing announced plans to bring drone delivery to 100 additional stores across five metro areas, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa. That expansion builds on the company’s existing drone delivery network in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, where the service is already active at more than a dozen stores.
“Atlanta is a powerhouse in aviation, and we’re bringing the same spirit of speed and efficiency to thousands of Walmart customers across the Metro just in time for the busiest season of the year,” said Heather Rivera, Chief Business Officer at Wing. “This launch is a critical next step in our significant expansion, turning drone delivery from novelty to norm as residents make drone delivery part of their everyday shopping.”
Company leaders say drone delivery is becoming a regular part of how Walmart thinks about fast fulfillment, especially during busy shopping periods like the holidays and back-to-school season.
For now, the service mainly covers suburban areas, not dense city centers. But the Atlanta launch shows how quickly drone delivery is moving from small tests to real retail use.
For shoppers, the appeal is speed and convenience. For Walmart, it is another way to handle quick, last-minute orders without sending out a delivery driver.
The Atlanta rollout builds on Walmart and Wing’s earlier drone delivery expansion into other U.S. markets, including Texas and Florida. Drone delivery is growing fast as a business, with projections showing it becoming a multibillion-dollar industry over the next several years.Â
