• by P.J. Bednarski , July 16, 2020

Walgreens has made a deal with DoorDash for on-demand delivery, first available in a handful of cities with plans to take the arrangement nationwide.

The first markets to get the service are Atlanta, Denver, and Chicago, where the drugstore chain started in 1901.

Shoppers will be able to pick from more 2,300 convenience, health and wellness items, with hopes that the shopping basket can expand to 5,000 by the time it’s available in the next markets on the list: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle.

Delivery of prescription drugs is not part of the deal -- Walgreens has an arrangement with FedEx for that.

The Door Dash deal is on top of Walgreens' relationship with Postmates, which began five years ago and now provides delivery service from 7,000 (out of 9,000 existing) stores.   A Walgreens  spokeswoman says eventually there could be some overlap between the two delivery services..

Neither service will deliver alcohol, cigarettes, e-cigarettes or tobacco.

There’s a fee for both services, lessened for consumers who become DoorDash or Postmates members.

The pandemic wasn’t the prime impetus for the Door Dash deal. The spokeswoman said, “The collaboration was in the works prior to COVID-19, but we recognized the needs of our customers for new ways to shop, and expedited plans to roll out to additional markets.”

“Our collaboration with DoorDash is the latest example of our ongoing focus on enhancing our customer experience with new convenient, accessible and safe shopping and delivery options," said Said Stefanie Kruse, vice president, digital commerce and omnichannel. 

Delivery of many items has increased dramatically since the pandemic closed up retail businesses almost everywhere around the country. The Walgreens deal with Postmates began five years ago, though it was expanded just a few weeks ago.

CVS also has a deal with DoorDash, announced last month. 

Important to note: Walgreens and CVS are far from simply drugstores. They compete with other chains and online retailers  like Walmart, Target and Amazon, which all offer same-day or next-day delivery.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, the corporate name for the chain, reported third quarter earnings last week and disclosed taking a $700 million to $750 million hit on sales. Almost all of that came from its Boots drugstores in the United Kingdom, where, the company said, “footfall,” or visits to their stores, fell 85% in April, largely because the citizens there took advice seriously and stayed inside.