Axios has reported that Walmart will cease its drone deliveries in three states in order to focus efforts on the recently expanded service in Dallas.
Walmart’s drone delivery partner DroneUp told Axios it is closing 18 Walmart delivery hubs in Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa, all of which first entered operation in 2022, because they were “too small to be sustainable”. The company will instead concentrate on scaling up its Dallas operations, particularly on automation and a drone with higher payload capacity and longer range.
“The reduction will cut DroneUp’s delivery service to 15 Walmart locations: 11 in Dallas, 3 near Walmart’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters and one in Virginia Beach, where DroneUp is based,” Axios reports.
Walmart first announced its Dallas expansion in January to include stores across more than 30 towns and municipalities in the Dallas Fort-Worth area. The deliveries are powered by Wing and Zipline, which are both approved by the US Federal Aviation Authority to fly their drones without a dedicated observer being able to see the drone at all times. In June, Walmart announced that its customers in Dallas Fort-Worth would be able to order drone delivery through the Walmart app.
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