Walmart and Amazon have announced plans to expand their burgeoning drone delivery service to hundreds of U.S. cities in the coming years – a prospect that could face some regulatory hurdles and have significant local impact if the companies set their sights on Chattanooga.
The retail titans so far have been tight-lipped about the areas where they will offer the service.
“We do not have locations to share for the expansion at this time,” a Walmart spokesperson told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Walmart, which partners with drone delivery providers Zipline and Wing, and Amazon, which builds and operates its own uncrewed aircraft, tout the service as a new level of convenience — deliveries on demand in minutes, straight to the recipient’s yard or doorstep — that also curtails emissions from delivery vans.
The companies and their partners maintain that customer feedback is overwhelmingly positive, and Walmart says the fact that 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of one of its stores gives the company a “unique advantage to build on its existing store network to expand drone delivery.”