Walmart is betting that the future of retail convenience doesn’t pull up to the front door but descends from the sky.

The nation’s largest retailer is dramatically expanding its partnership with Wing, Alphabet’s drone delivery company, scaling what is already the world’s largest residential drone delivery operation to reach more than 40 million Americans. Over the next year, drone delivery will roll out to an additional 150 Walmart stores, with service expanding into major metropolitan areas including Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Miami. By 2027, the network is expected to include more than 270 drone delivery locations stretching from coast to coast.

“Drone delivery plays an important role in our ability to deliver what customers want, exactly when they want it,” said Greg Cathey, Senior Vice President of Digital Fulfillment Transformation at Walmart. “Whether it’s a last-minute ingredient for dinner, a must-have charger for a phone, or a late-night essential for a busy family, the strong adoption we’ve seen confirms that this is the future of convenience. By expanding drone delivery to new major metro areas, we are helping more customers solve for their last-minute needs faster than ever before.”

What once sounded like an experiment is becoming a normalized part of Walmart’s strategy — and of everyday shopping habits. In Dallas-Fort Worth and metro Atlanta, where Wing and Walmart have already been operating, drone deliveries tripled in the past six months. Wing says its top 25% of customers order drone delivery three times a week.

The expansion also underscores how drone delivery is moving from pilot projects to infrastructure. According to PwC Drone Powered Solutions, drones are expected to deliver goods worth more than $65 billion globally by 2034, with business-to-consumer drone deliveries projected to jump from roughly 5 million worldwide to more than 800 million within a decade. As costs drop — from as much as $25 per delivery today to an estimated $2 by 2034 — drones are increasingly viewed as a viable alternative to traditional last-mile delivery.

For Walmart, the appeal is both logistical and philosophical. The company began experimenting with drone delivery in 2021, quietly testing what worked — and what didn’t — in Northwest Arkansas, near its corporate headquarters. Early partnerships included Zipline, a drone company best known for delivering medical supplies in Rwanda and other countries, and later Wing, which operates under Federal Aviation Administration rules that allow drones to fly Beyond Visual Line of Sight within a six-mile radius of a store.

“Customers today are busier than ever, which is why every day we’re finding new ways to make their lives easier,” said Tom Ward, Senior Vice President, Customer Product, Walmart, in a 2020 company post announcing early drone trials. “At the same time, our history of innovation, a foundation laid by our founder Sam Walton, has us committed to learning how new technology can better serve customers.”

Those early tests helped Walmart refine how drone delivery could function at scale: small baskets, lightweight items, fast turnaround times and clear drop-off zones such as driveways or yards. Today, eligible customers typically live within six to eight miles of a participating store and can receive orders weighing up to 2.1 pounds in as little as 30 minutes. Items are gently lowered to the ground by cable, eliminating the need for landing pads.

The most frequently delivered products are practical essentials — bananas, eggs, ice cream, pet food, over-the-counter medicine and baby formula — items people often realize they need now, not tomorrow.

By June 2025, Walmart had completed more than 150,000 drone deliveries and became the first retailer to scale drone delivery across five states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. That expansion brought service to Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa, with 100 stores launching drone delivery through Wing.

“This is real drone delivery at scale,” said Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing. “People all around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex have made drone delivery part of their normal shopping habits over the past year. Now we’re excited to share this ultra-fast delivery experience with millions more people across many more U.S. cities.”

Despite the tremendous growth, drone delivery’s adoption is uneven. Industry analysts say that suburban and rural areas are better suited for drones, where homes have more space, fewer obstructions and clearer drop zones. Dense urban areas present challenges, including safety concerns, airspace complexity and limited landing infrastructure.

Walmart’s push into cities like Los Angeles and Miami signals confidence that those barriers can be overcome, especially as technology improves and regulators grow more comfortable with unmanned aerial systems.

“We’ve spent years building our technology to ensure that when you realize you’re out of eggs or need over-the-counter medicine, the solution is just a few taps away, seamlessly integrated into existing store operations,” Woodworth said. “We believe even the smallest package deserves the speed and reliability of a great delivery service.”