Walmart to test drone deliveries from a store in Fayetteville
Walmart announced Wednesday that it is experimenting with drones to deliver groceries and household items from a store in Fayetteville.
Walmart says it has teamed up with Flytrex, an Israeli-based company that also has been planning to deliver prepared food via drone from a shopping center in Holly Springs.
A company spokesman said Flytrex is still working through regulatory issues with the Holly Springs project but hopes to be flying there by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Walmart says it will use its experience in Fayetteville to learn how customers and employees adapt to drone deliveries.
“We know that it will be some time before we see millions of packages delivered via drone,” Tom Ward, the company’s vice president for customer products, said in a written statement. “That still feels like a bit of science fiction, but we’re at a point where we’re learning more and more about the technology that is available and how we can use it to make our customers’ lives easier.”
Walmart will offer drone deliveries from its store on Strickland Bridge Road on the west side of town. The two companies chose the store because it is close to several neighborhoods where deliveries could take place, according to Flytrex spokesman Mushkie Meyer.
Customers must download the Flytrex app to find out if their address is within the drone’s range from the store. Meyer said customers would use the app to place an order and then follow its status until it arrives at their home.
The Flytrex drone is loaded on the ground but does not land at its destination. Instead, the drone lowers a bag containing the items to the ground via a cable. The drone is capable of carrying up to 6.6 pounds, Meyer said.
The drone delivery business is still in its infancy, for both technological and regulatory reasons. North Carolina became a testing place for drone technology when it was accepted into the Federal Aviation Administration’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program, which was launched by the Trump administration to determine how drones could be used for commercial purposes in the U.S.
That has led to the launch of two projects in the Triangle, both involving UPS. In March 2019, UPS began regular drone flights to deliver blood and other lab samples from medical offices on Sunnybrook Road to a lab at WakeMed’s main hospital on New Bern Avenue. Last fall, the company announced that it had completed the country’s first two home deliveries of prescription medications via drone from a CVS store in Cary.
In both cases, UPS used drones made by California-based Matternet.
