Need groceries? It's time to look to sky.
On June 7, Cincinnati-based grocery giant Kroger, whose supermarket chains include Pick 'n Save and Metro Market in Wisconsin, launched its new drone delivery service in Centerville, Ohio. The first flight carried groceries from the Kroger Marketplace in Centerville to the town's city hall, a roughly one-mile trip.
The service's launch comes a month after Kroger announced a partnership with Drone Express, a division of New Jersey-based Telegrid Technologies, to offer grocery delivery via autonomous drones.
Once operational, the partnership will allow Kroger customers to have products delivered to them wherever they are, thanks to their smartphones. That means deliveries won't be limited simply to customers' households.
Deliveries will have a roughly five pound weight limit. Kroger is in the process of creating speciality bundle packages, such as a S'mores bundle.
Orders can be placed online at Kroger.com/DroneDelivery, and can be available within 15 minutes.
Kroger has invested billions in improving its capabilities to serve customers ordering groceries digitally. Most recently, it opened its enormous $55 million Ocado automated customer fulfillment center in Monroe to select digital orders for customers faster and more efficiently than in the past. Kroger plans to open 11 such facilities by the middle of 2023.
