Can a drone deliver your groceries? What to know about Walmart’s service in Florida

Is that your grocery order flying over your home?

What seemed so high-tech — ordering groceries online and a car driver rolling them to your front door — has reached higher-tech:

Walmart is now using drones to deliver your selections.

The mega-retailer is partnering with the DroneUp delivery network to provide service from 36 sites in seven states — including Florida — to deliver groceries to your house by drone. Walmart first announced the plans for Florida in December.

You have questions about grocery delivery by drone? We have some answers, including from DroneUp’s director of marketing and communications, Patrick Santucci.

How does the drone delivery service work?

Placing an order: Walmart says a customer places an order via droneupdelivery.com. The item ordered is pulled from the store, packaged and loaded into the drone. The drone then flies to the customer’s house and delivers groceries to the customer’s yard. The drone, hovering 80 feet up, uses a sturdy cable to lower the package to the ground. Walmart and DroneUp say your item should arrive in 30 minutes or less in most conditions.

Where is the drone flying?

Several states: In addition to Florida, the delivery by drone service is active in Arkansas, where Walmart has its headquarters, as well as Arizona, Texas, Utah and Virginia, Walmart announced in December. The chain is aiming to compete with e-commerce merchants like Amazon, Fox13 reported in Tampa Bay.

Do other companies do this?

A trend: Retail drone deliveries from various companies, including Walmart, Amazon, UPS and Domino’s Pizza (the first to make a drone delivery, according to Insider Intelligence) will expand from nearly 35,000 in 2022 to over 110,000 in 2024, Insider Intelligence reports.

Amazon: In June 2019, Amazon announced it would launch drone deliveries “in a matter of months,” Forbes reported, but finally started to do so in December 2022, in California and Texas, according to Drone DJ.

When can you place an order?

Hours: A Walmart customer can order a drone delivery between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily through the droneupdelivery.com website.

Items: Theoretically, customers can cull from tens of thousands of eligible items, such as Tylenol, diapers and hot dog buns, for delivery by air, according to Walmart and have their order in their yard within 30 minutes in most cases.

Weather risk: DroneUp notes that forces like bad weather or strong winds could cause delivery delays. Suggestion from a Floridian: Order hurricane supplies ahead of the season’s start in June and not while you’re under a hurricane watch or warning.

How much can I order and how much will this service cost?

Fee: The delivery fee is $3.99. You can order items totaling up to 10 pounds. “Simply put, if it fits safely it flies,” Walmart said.

Weight: DroneUp recently upgraded its aircraft to support payloads up to 10 pounds, Santucci told the Miami Herald. When the program was initially announced nationwide in May 2022, the weight limit was 3 pounds.

What is the delivery range?

Limit: “Hub locations are chosen based on several factors including weather and population,” Santucci said. “Right now delivery is around a one-mile range but we are looking to increase that in the future and provide this service to more people.”

Goal: According to Walmart stats, 4,700 stores are located within 90% of the U.S. population — but not all of these people live within one mile of a Walmart. The goal, and the ability, was to deliver a million packages by drone in the first year, Walmart corporate announced in December. In 2022, Walmart completed 6,000 drone deliveries in the U.S.

What Walmarts in Florida deliver by drone?

Locations: As of mid-March, seven Walmart locations in Florida take orders for drone delivery, according to DroneUp. Here is where they are:

▪ Walmart Supercenter #2740,19910 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Tampa.

▪ Walmart Supercenter #2695, 1450 Johns Lake Rd., Clermont.

▪ Walmart Supercenter #5299, 550 U.S. Highway 27, Clermont.

▪ Walmart Supercenter #994, 8745 State Road 54, New Port Richey.

▪ Walmart Supercenter #941, 2140 Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico.

▪ Walmart Supercenter #3347, 7450 Cypress Gardens Blvd., Winter Haven.

▪ Walmart Supercenter #3463, 1208 E. Brandon Blvd., Brandon.

What about Miami? Fort Lauderdale? The Florida Keys?

Next steps: “While we have plans to continue opening more hubs, we cannot comment on where the next ones are opening at this time,” Santucci said. “We’ll continue to listen to customer response to determine where to bring this delivery option next.”

I live in an apartment. Will drones fly there?

Houses only: The drone delivery service lowers packages by cable to a customer’s yard. But what if customers live in an apartment? How would the drone make the delivery to a customer that doesn’t live in a single-family home? “This is a new service and while we cannot facilitate package delivery to apartment complexes at the moment, we are always exploring how to improve customer experience and bring this delivery option to more people,” Santucci said.

Do you have to be home to accept a delivery?

Notifications: Customers get status updates and notifications via their cellphone throughout the delivery process so, technically, they don’t have to be on the ground and accept their paper towels or ice cream in their waiting arms. But given porch thieves, it’s probably a good idea to be around. “Plan accordingly,” Santucci said.

What are the most popular items for drone deliveries?

Last-minute items: “Given deliveries are 30 minutes and under, this service is more designed for last-minute items or urgent deliveries,” Santucci said.

According to Walmart, these are the most popular drone delivery items so far from the new service.

▪ Great Value cookies

▪ Great Value ice cream

▪ A 2-pound bag of lemons

▪ Rotisserie chicken

▪ Red Bull

▪ Bounty paper towels.