Kroger to begin testing drone delivery in Ohio

CENTERVILLE – Kroger shoppers soon may have a new choice to get their groceries delivered. That is if a pilot drone delivery program in Centerville is successful.

Kroger and Drone Express announced a new partnership Monday. The partnership will allow Kroger offer grocery delivery via autonomous drones from Drone Express.

For a customer to order an item via drone, all they would have to do is select the item they want on Kroger’s website. Then is as little as 15 minutes a drone would arrive to deliver the item.

The location of the delivery will be based off of the customer’s smartphone location, not a street address. This means that a customer could order picnic supplies to a park, sunscreen to the beach, or condiments to a backyard cookout.

“The launch of the pilot in Centerville is the culmination of months of meticulous research and development by Kroger and Drone Express to better serve and meet the needs of our customers,” said Ethan Grob, Kroger’s director of last mile strategy and product. “We look forward to progressing from test flights to customer deliveries this spring, introducing one more way for our customers to experience Kroger.”

A second pilot program is scheduled to launch this summer at a Ralphs store in California. Ralphs is a subsidiary of Kroger.

“Kroger’s new drone delivery pilot is part of the evolution of our rapidly growing and innovative e-commerce business – which includes pickup, delivery, and ship and reached more than $10 billion in sales in 2020,” said Kroger’s Jody Kalmbach, group vice president of product experience. “The pilot reinforces the importance of flexibility and immediacy to customers, powered by modern, cost-effective, and efficient last-mile solutions. We’re excited to test drone delivery and gain insights that will inform expansion plans as well as future customer solutions.”