Walmart To Test Drone Delivery of Grocery, Household Items (cnbc.com) 14
Walmart said on Wednesday it would run a pilot project for delivery of grocery and household products through automated drones, along with end-to-end delivery firm Flytrex, as the U.S. retailer looks to beef up its delivery business. CNBC reports: Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart said the test would start on Wednesday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with cloud-controlled drones picking up and dropping off select items. "We know that it will be some time before we see millions of packages delivered via drone. That still feels like a bit of science fiction," Tom Ward, senior vice-president, customer products, said in a statement.
Local governments may prosecute drone operators. (Score:3)
Why not the Bay Area? (Score:3)
Seems like if you're going to do a pilot study, you should do it in an area where a sizable percentage of the population are working from home and relying on pickup and delivery services on a daily basis, so that even a small improvement would be a big win. North Carolina seems like an odd choice.
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North Carolina seems like an odd choice.
Here is the reason NC was picked over California: Lawyers per capita by state [wordpress.com].
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" a sizable percentage of the population are working from home and relying on pickup and delivery services on a daily basis,"
Meals on wheels, become flying nosh?
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"North Carolina seems like an odd choice."
Exactly! It's the worst of the Carolinas.
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Because Wally World is more popular in North Carolina than in San Francisco.
Duh.
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That kind of misses the point of growth, though. You don't grow your business by providing slightly better service to existing customers. You grow your business by providing service to new customers. There are no Wal-Mart stores IN San Francisco. The nearest Wal-Mart is a good half hour's drive from there (either in San Leandro on the opposite side of the Bay or in Mountain View all the way at the bottom of the peninsula) without traffic, and far longer than that when the world isn't shut down for a pa
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My point doesn't miss the point. You don't understand any of this, so you don't understand why it is true. Simple as that.
Blah blah new customers
When you're little known, this makes sense. When you're a household name this is not always true. Growth doesn't continue forever, and you can't balance the books trying to do that.
If you want to hear it from an authority, read the book Location, Location, Location by that fast food prick. You don't target places where people don't want your product. You don't just count the fucking peop
logistics (Score:2)
It may be that Walmart can compete with Amazon on price, providing cheap product delivery if the consumer is not selective about what product it is. My experience, however, is that it will always take walmart
Only idiots think this will work (Score:4, Interesting)
Drone delivery as proposed here is a total folly.
Nobody is going to be able to set up and profitably run a drone delivery service that deals in low-value items delivered direct from business to consumer -- the economics simply do not stack up.
The only reason that there are so many companies clamoring for attention in this space is because there's a bunch of dim-witted venture capitalists out there who believe everything they believe in the paper and see on TV. Anyone remember the "dot-com crash" of 2000? Well get ready for the great "drone crash" that'll be coming in the next year or two.
Eventually, even the dim-witted involved will wise up to the fact that the economics do not stack up and that no drone can match a minimum-wage worker on a motorcycle or in a white van delivering tens or hundreds of orders in a single run.
It's not just economics... it's also reguation. Right now, in most countries, a person can't even fly a toy drone in their own back yard if they're within a few miles of an airport or in controlled airspace and people are not legally allowed to fly a small drone beyond their visual line of sight because apparently these things are simply too dangerous... so what chance that we'll have huge, heavy, noisy delivery drones doing these things in an automated fashion within the forseeable future?
The *real* future of drone delivery is the use of self-driving ground-based vehicles, such as those
being used in Milton Keynes in the UK [independent.co.uk].
And, FYI, I know a thing or two about drones and the more I know, the less inclined I am to believe that anytime in the near future, our skies will be dimmed by swarms of delivery drones!
Another Month, Another Drone Test (Score:2)
It's been what, 8 years, since toy quad copters captured the imagination of logistics specialists and venture capitalists alike? Since then, seemingly every month has come with some company advertising a "drone delivery pilot program".
How many established drone delivery systems actually exist profitably?
Drone deliveries will not work because:
1. Restricted airspace/air travel laws
2. Trees
3. Power lines
4. Wind
5. Risk of drones falling on people/property
6. Ease of theft of delivery
7. Cost per failure
The list c
What Could Go Wrong? (Score:1)
I hope Walmart's adventurous foray into drone delivery is better than:
- the flimsy plastic bags that they use at the checkout counters in their stores that WILL BREAK before you get them inside your door
- the miniscule counters they have in the self-checkout sections of their stores, and Walmart helpers stacking your groceries on the floor
- their personal shyopping staff and those huge carts they push around that block the aisles for all others
- their lazy help that don't know how to properly wear face mask