7-Eleven First to Use Drone Delivery

Convenience store giant 7-Eleven announced Friday that it had successfully delivered two batches of merchandise to a customer’s home in Nevada via drone. The delivery marks the first time a U.S. customer has received a package via a fully autonomous aircraft.  

The initiative was completed in partnership with Flirtey, a leading drone delivery service that partnered with the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS). The Federal Aviation Administration approved the delivery. After a Reno, Nevada family purchased several products, including Slurpee® drinks, donuts and hot coffee, the hot and frozen items were picked up from a local convenience store and loaded into a special Flirtey drone delivery container that maintains the merchandise’s temperature. The drone flew using precise GPS technology and landed in the customer’s backyard, where it gently unloaded its cargo. The process was completed in a matter of minutes.

In the press release announcing the event, Michael, the Reno resident who ordered the items and received the Flirtey delivery, said, “Having access to instant, 24/7 drone delivery is priceless. It’s amazing that a flying robot just delivered us food and drinks in a matter of minutes.”

“Drone delivery is the ultimate convenience for our customers and these efforts create enormous opportunities to redefine convenience,” said Jesus H. Delgado-Jenkins, 7-Eleven EVP and chief merchandising officer. “In the future, we plan to make the entire assortment in our stores available for delivery to customers in minutes.”

The ground-breaking drone delivery also caught the attention of Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who offered his congratulations to the Nevada-based company Flirtey for “making history yet again – this time by collaborating with the world’s largest convenience retailer to complete the first store-to-home drone delivery in Reno, Nevada.”

According to Flirtey, Friday’s practice run was intended to help the company refine its drone delivery technology and enhance research that would shed light on integrating independent drones into the National Airspace System. In the future, both Flirtey and 7-Eleven expect drones to deliver everything from food to regular household items such as batteries and sunscreen.