Retail giant Walmart (WMT) and Zipline have launched its 17th drone delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas.
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Shopping in the Sky
It means that residents of Royse City can now receive groceries and household essentials from drones rather than popping down to their local stores.
According to Walmart, customers can now receive up to 2.5 kg of items by drone in as little as 30 minutes. Products that can go airborne include fresh and frozen foods, pantry staples and baby formula.
The deliveries are powered by Californian robotics company Zipline, which reportedly has flown over 120 million commercial miles and delivered over 18 million products “without a serious injury.”
The Royse City launch expands Walmart and Zipline’s drone network in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, where the companies already operate in several other cities. Greenville, located about 50 miles northeast of Dallas, began operations earlier this year.
Other Dallas locations with Zipline service include Mesquite, Waxahachie, McKinney, Kaufman, Bedford, Weatherford, and Lewisville. Together with Wing, Google’s drone delivery subsidiary that also partners with Walmart, the retailer aims to offer drone delivery to approximately 75% of the Dallas population, roughly 1.8 million households.
Walmart Takes Flight
It comes only a week after Walmart opened AI shopping assistant Sparky, AI-powered supply chain services and a partnership with ChatGPT group OpenAI. Walmart is switching its listing to the tech market Nasdaq next week – a further indication of how much its services are flying in a different direction these days. That’s important given that tech and innovation is a key risk for both the company and investors – see above.">a drone service in Atlanta, flying from six Supercenter locations in the city. It is shipping orders there through a partnership with Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOGL).
Walmart plans to add drone delivery in five new metro areas and over 100 stores in the U.S. in 2026. The service initially launched in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2023 and is also available in Bentonville, Arkansas.
It has promised that customers in Charlotte, North Carolina, Houston, Texas, Orlando and Tampa are next in line.
The drones are another part of Walmart’s technological transformation. This includes its AI shopping assistant Sparky, AI-powered supply chain services and a partnership with ChatGPT group OpenAI.
Walmart is switching its listing to the tech market Nasdaq on December 9 – a further indication of how important technology is becoming to the company.
That’s important given that tech and innovation is a key risk for both the company and investors – see above.
Is WMT a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, WMT has a Strong Buy consensus based on 26 Buy ratings. Its highest price target is $130. WMT stock’s consensus price target is $122, implying an 8.01% upside.
