Walgreens goes west (and south) with on-demand delivery

Walgreens is rolling out its on-demand delivery service well beyond the borders of New York City.

Following a successful implementation of the Postmates on-demand delivery service for items available at select Walgreens stores in New York City and Brooklyn in October 2019, Walgreens and Postmates are now making the service available in 13 additional cities.

Consumers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Portland (Ore.), Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Houston can now get health and wellness and other convenience products, including select over-the-counter medications, delivered to them from Walgreens stores via Postmates.

"Convenience is becoming increasingly important to our shoppers. They are looking to retailers, like Walgreens, to help them save time in their busy lives," said Stefanie Kruse, VP, digital commerce and omnichannel at Walgreens. "It's all about getting customers what they need, when and where is most convenient for them. We look forward to making our core product assortment available in these new cities through our expanded ongoing collaboration with Postmates, a leader in the industry providing on-demand delivery to customers, direct-to-their-door, or wherever they are."

"We are thrilled to expand delivery service from Walgreens stores to more cities, especially Los Angeles, where we are the market leader with more than 120% more market share than the closest competitor," said Craig Whitmer, VP, merchant business development at Postmates. "The drug store/convenience category is one that customers turn to for convenience on the Postmates platform."

Customers can order items available at more than 1,700 participating Walgreens stores, via the Postmates site or app. They will pay zero delivery fees when they subscribe to the Postmates membership service, Postmates Unlimited, for $9.99 per month.

Walgreens has been actively exploring on-demand delivery platforms since fall 2019. October 2019 also saw the drugstore giant went live with a trial of “store to door” delivery of health and wellness, food and beverage and convenience items via drone delivery in Christianburg, Va. Walgreens is conducting the pilot in partnership with Wing Aviation, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet.

As of Aug. 31, 2018, Walgreens operates 9,560 drugstores with a presence in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with its omnichannel business, Walgreens.com.