Customers could soon receive goods within 30 minutes, but safety and privacy concerns remain
Walmart and Wing, a drone company owned by Google parent Alphabet, plan to expand drone delivery to 150 Walmart locations over the next year, including Los Angeles.
The two companies announced on Sunday plans to bring drone delivery services to 40 million additional customers in major metropolitan hubs, starting with Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Miami. Orders typically arrive within 30 minutes.
“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,” Wing CEO Adam Woodworth said in a statement. The company’s drones can carry goods up to five pounds and travel six miles each way.
Walmart offers free delivery to Walmart+ members and charges $19.99 per delivery for non-members. Shoppers can receive free delivery when they order through the Wing app.
The two companies aim to expand drone delivery services to 270 Walmart locations by 2027.
The future of retail is landing! 📦🪽We’re expanding our partnership with @Walmart to 150 new stores, bringing drone delivery to 40M+ Americans from LA to Miami. Get your essentials in as little as 30 minutes. ✨
Learn more: https://t.co/7HcbC17tfz#Wing #Walmart #Innovation pic.twitter.com/7EhaVhUgcT
— Wing (@Wing) January 11, 2026
The announcement comes after the Federal Aviation Administration proposed a new rule in August that would make it easier for companies to fly drones outside the operator’s line of sight, enabling longer-distance flights.
“We are making the future of our aviation a reality and unleashing American drone dominance,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. “From drones delivering medicine to unmanned aircraft surveying crops, this technology will fundamentally change the way we interact with the world.”
Scroll to continue reading
Walmart announced its partnership with Wing in 2023 to bring drone delivery to Dallas. Since then, the companies have expanded operations across seven states and 36 stores, completing over 10,000 deliveries.
Hurdles to Expansion
Residents have begun voicing anxieties over safety and privacy as delivery drones become commonplace in select major cities.
In a 2024 survey conducted by Vanderbilt University, 70% of U.S. adults expressed concern that delivery drones would disturb neighborhoods and may be unsafe. 66% opposed drones taking videos or images of their home.
In November, Amazon, which directly competes with Walmart, faced an FAA probe after its MK30 delivery drone clipped an internet cable in Texas. The incident marked the online retailer’s second federal drone probe in two months, after two delivery drones crashed into a crane in Arizona.
FAA safety regulations require drones to broadcast their locations with an identifier. This enables third parties to track delivery drones from stores to customers’ locations, easily linking shoppers to potentially sensitive products such as medications.
The big-box retailer has also received noise complaints in areas where it has tested and deployed larger delivery drones.
“It sounds like a hornet’s nest that’s been kicked up,” Mike Baxter, a resident of Glendale, Arizona, said.
To check if your home is in Walmart’s new service area for drone delivery, you can visit Wing.com/get-delivery.