Wing and Walmart Launch Charlotte Drone Delivery

Drone delivery has become a metro-wide service in Charlotte. Wing, the drone company owned by Google’s parent Alphabet, says homes near seven Walmart Supercenters across the North Carolina city and its surrounding towns can now order groceries, household goods and over-the-counter medicine by air, in as little as 30 minutes and with no tipping, DroneXL reports.

The stores are in Charlotte, Gastonia, Concord, Kannapolis, Lincolnton, Shelby and Kings Mountain. Walmart counts 10 communities in range, adding Huntersville, Indian Trail and Matthews. Customers within about six miles of a participating store qualify, and two more Charlotte stores are due within a week.

Seven stores, one service

Not all of this is new. Several stores were already flying: Kings Mountain began Walmart drone deliveries in December 2025, Shelby in February, and Kannapolis was flying by June, according to DroneXL. Wednesday’s announcement turns a store-by-store rollout into a single Charlotte service.

Walmart and Wing showed it off on Tuesday at the Supercenter near Monroe Road in east Charlotte, Business North Carolina reported. Wing has fenced off part of the car park as a “nest” with departure spots for about a dozen drones. A drone option appears in the Walmart app and on Walmart.com for customers in range, and orders can also be placed through Wing’s own app.

The Charlotte stores are among 60 Walmart locations in the US now offering drone delivery, both outlets report, towards a target of more than 270 by the end of 2027.

How the drones deliver

The drones never land. Business North Carolina says each weighs 11 pounds, hovers about 23 feet up and lowers the order on a tether. They cruise at 150 to 200 feet and up to 60mph, and the paper’s reporter compared the noise at the demonstration to a quiet lawnmower. A home needs a clear drop spot “about the size of a picnic blanket”, Wing spokesman Tom Kuhn said, and some apartment buildings with shared delivery spots qualify.

Orders are capped at 2.5 pounds in the Charlotte reports, and Business North Carolina says more than half of Walmart’s items are light enough. The figure has varied, though. DroneXL notes earlier coverage giving 2.1 pounds, and another account giving five pounds, without either Charlotte report saying which Wing aircraft flies here.

The rules on what can fly are not quite settled in public, either. Business North Carolina says flammable goods, alcohol and pharmaceutical products are excluded, while Wing’s own post advertises over-the-counter medicine. Pricing has shifted too. The paper says delivery is now free in the Wing app and for Walmart customers. In February, a $19.99 fee per delivery was reported for shoppers without Walmart+, DroneXL notes.

Who gets a say

Kuhn told Business North Carolina that Walmart and Wing need no permission from local towns to fly, because the Federal Aviation Administration regulates the flights. Only the use of the store car park needs city approval. DroneXL adds that an FAA review already caps Wing at 25 hubs in the Charlotte area.

That car park approval can still be contentious. A Walmart in Denver, North Carolina, whose drone site Lincoln County commissioners approved 3-1 in June after more than 200 people signed a petition against it, is not among the seven stores.

Charlotte is not new to Wing. The company has flown restaurant orders there with DoorDash since May 2025. Business North Carolina says Wing, formed inside Google in 2012, has completed more than a million deliveries, mostly with Walmart. Reaching 270 stores means opening roughly 210 more in about 14 months, and that pace will show whether Charlotte’s model travels.