Today In How We Eat: Drone Deliveries Take Off, Walmart vs Amazon Prime

Today in how we eat, the world of delivery gets a close-up as drones prepare to take to the skies to drop groceries off at our homes. And Amazon Prime and Walmart+ prepare to square off as enrollment for Walmart’s new subscription offering opens up to consumers today as the race for the consumer’s grocery dollar continues to intensify between the two mega-retailers.

Walmart Revs Up Second Test Program For Drone Delivery

Walmart has announced yet another set of drone delivery tests on top of the tests it announced last week of drone delivery with Flytrex in Fayetteville, North Carolina. This week, a new partnership was announced with  Zipline technology to make on-demand deliveries of select health and wellness products with the potential to expand.   According to Walmart, Zipline can operate within a Walmart store and from there within a roughly 50-mile radius, which is about the size of the state of Connecticut.

New Math: Walmart+ Doesn’t Equal Amazon Prime

Walmart+ enrollment is underway, and market watchers are avidly wondering how many consumers will sign on for Walmart’s $98 a year subscription, which includes are free grocery deliveries (and other products) above $35, and scan-and-go (contactless) payments within the app. Whether those benefits compete with Amazon’s well established Prime offering, which on the face is much more robust for $119 in terms of features offered, or if it is more a placeholder while Walmart continues to work on a “Prime-killer” remains to be seen.