Walmart plans to start delivering items by drone in five major cities, the company announced Thursday from its new headquarters in Bentonville. The markets are Atlanta; Charlotte, North Carolina; Houston, Texas; and Orlando and Tampa, Florida.

The big picture: The expansion is the retailer's latest move to tap technology to get goods to customers faster and easier, and it has real bottom line consequences for the retailer.

• "When we see a customer adopt fast delivery, their spend with Walmart doubles, and then when they use it four times, spend triples," the company's Chief Operating Officer Kieran Shanahan said Thursday.

The latest: Working with drone provider Wing, Walmart will launch the drone service at 100 stores, building on existing operations in Northwest Arkansas and Dallas-Fort Worth.

• Wing drones can fly up to 6 miles from their store.

Zoom in: The NWA service is now only available in Pea Ridge, via Zipline, a Walmart spokesperson told Axios.

• More NWA locations will come soon, but no details are yet available, she said.

Zoom out: Wing has a designation from the FAA allowing pilots to operate drones outside a human's line-of-sight, which ultimately means they can deliver to a larger radius from a store and use fewer people.

Between the lines: The service will be free when customers order through the Wing app.

• Items weighing up to 2.5 pounds can be delivered, but Wing is working on doubling the payload capacity.

What they're saying: "As we look ahead, drone delivery will remain a key part of our commitment to redefining retail," Greg Cathey, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. Transformation and Innovation, said in a news release. "We're pushing the boundaries of convenience to better serve our customers, making shopping faster and easier than ever before."

Flashback: Walmart and former delivery partner DroneUp announced last year they would end drone delivery hubs in Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa to focus on perfecting the service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It also ended pilot delivery projects in Bentonville and Prairie Grove.

The bottom line: "Not only does the amount they spend triple, the number of categories and departments that they interact with increases, and their frequency of shopping with Walmart also increases," Shanahan said.

What's next: The company is still working to select specific stores in the cities, so local announcements will come in the future, a spokesperson said.

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🍫 Sam's Club plans to eliminate more than 40 ingredients from its Member's Mark brand by the end of the year. (KNWA)

⛺️ The University of Arkansas has asked the 50-70 homeless people living at the university-owned wooded area along 19th Street in Fayetteville to leave by Monday. (Fayetteville Flyer)

• Mayor Molly Rawn will host a town hall at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church for a conversation about homelessness and housing solutions.

🚨 Grant Hardin, who escaped from a Calico Rock prison last month, has likely left the state and could be hiding in caves in the Ozark Mountain region, investigators say. (AP)

Here's how to have a good one.

🌏 Bentonville First Friday and Festival of Nations — The downtown Bentonville square's monthly First Friday festival and usual Saturday morning farmer's market have extra flair this weekend. The Festival of Nations celebrating international cultures will be present at both with dance, music and culinary events.

🎭 "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" — Catch this play at TheatreSquared tonight, Saturday or Sunday. It's on stage through June 29.

• Get tickets ranging from $54-$80, with some $15 tickets for people under 30.

⚾️ Baseball tournament — The Arkansas Razorbacks play against the University of Tennessee at 4pm Saturday and 2pm Sunday (and possibly on Monday) in the NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional. Watch on ESPN.

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🏙️ Check out what's happening around the city.

Summer Camps at Crystal Bridges June to August: Young learners explore science, art, and history through expert-led camps, unlocking creativity and curiosity with hands-on experiences. Spots still available.

Interested in featuring an event? Email [email protected].

Ok, it's not accessible to most Arkansans, but one response to our request for camping spots on Monday is worth a mention.

• Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently held a campout for her children and some of their friends in her backyard.
• Yes, at the Governor's Mansion.

What she said: "We love to get out into our state parks and do all that kind of stuff. I'm a little bit more of a cabin camper myself," Sanders told Axios.

• "We joked that the sounds of downtown are not quite the same as the sounds of Pinnacle or Petit Jean or the Buffalo [National River]. The kids still had fun."
• The children were still awake at 2am, she added.

The bottom line: Get outside if you can and enjoy all that Arkansas has to offer.