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Kroger, Walgreens expand retail pilot

Walgreens health and beauty products to debut in Kroger stores

Russell Redman

August 19, 2019

4 Min Read
Walgreens section in Kroger stores_Knoxville TN.jpg
In the expanded pilot, 17 Kroger stores in the Knoxville, Tenn., area will sell a selection of Walgreens own-brand health and beauty products in a dedicated section.The Kroger Co.

The Kroger Co. and Walgreens Boots Alliance are broadening their retail partnership, including the launch of Walgreens health and beauty brands in Kroger stores.

Kroger and Walgreens said Monday that their expanded retail pilot, building on a test launched last October, will bring the Kroger Express curated grocery assortment and Kroger Pickup service to 35 Walgreens drugstores in the Knoxville, Tenn., market. In addition, Walgreens own-brand health and beauty products will be sold in a Walgreens-bannered section in 17 Kroger supermarkets in Knoxville.

Both of the tests in the Knoxville area are slated to begin this fall.

"We continue to redefine the grocery customer experience and partner for customer value through our Restock Kroger transformation plan. Our growing relationship with Walgreens is just one more way Kroger is making life easier and better for even more customers, because everyone deserves to have affordable, easy-to-enjoy, fresh food,” Jeff Talbot, vice president of new business development at Kroger, said in a statement. "Expanding our pilot to Knoxville demonstrates the ongoing success and future potential of bringing together the best of Kroger's food authority with Walgreens' global expertise in health and beauty.”

Related:Kroger, Walgreens step up grocery pilot

The 35 Walgreens stores in Knoxville will offer the Kroger Express selection of the Cincinnati-based grocer’s Our Brands products, including its Simple Truth natural and organic brand, as well as national-brand items. Designed to provide a fill-in grocery shopping experience, the assortment will vary by store and can include fresh meat, produce and dairy, frozen foods, shelf-stable products and Home Chef meal solutions, Kroger and Walgreens said.

Most locations will feature a full Kroger Express assortment of up to 2,700 products, with other stores offering an average of 2,300 products, the companies said. Most of the Walgreens pilot stores will also offer Kroger Pickup service, which will allow shoppers to place a digital order on Kroger.com or via the Kroger app for curbside pickup at a participating store.

Meanwhile, the curated Walgreens health and beauty selection at the 17 Kroger stores in Knoxville will span the beauty care, personal care, over-the-counter medicine and wellness categories and include the Walgreens Boots Alliance brands No7 and Soap & Glory.

Last October, Kroger and Walgreens announced a pilot in which customers at 13 Walgreens stores in northern Kentucky could order Kroger groceries online and pick them up at the drugstores. Among the items available in the test were Kroger’s Simple Truth brand.

Related:Kroger, Walgreens to pilot hybrid offering

Then in December, the retailers expanded the pilot by introducing the curated Kroger Express selection of 2,300 grocery products at the 13 Walgreens stores. Along with Simple Truth products, the offerings will included Kroger own brands and national-brand products; dairy, meat, produce and frozen items; and meal solutions, such as Home Chef meal kits. The products were curated using customer data and insights provided by 84.51°, Kroger’s data analytics arm. Kroger and Walgreens also launched Home Chef Express meal kits at 65 Walgreens stores in the Chicago area. Kroger acquired meal kit provider Home Chef in May 2018.

Kroger and Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens describe their ongoing pilot as “exploratory,” noting that the initiative enables them to elicit customer feedback and gain insights in a “test and learn” retail setting before they make a decision on whether to expand their efforts.

“Walgreens customers have responded very favorably to the Kroger Express pilot in northern Kentucky. As a result, we're exploring more ways to offer customers an enhanced, more convenient shopping experience," stated Richard Ashworth, president of operations for Walgreens. "Working with Kroger, we're continuing to reinvent our customer offer to meet shoppers' evolving needs, which includes offering private-label grocery and health products at a great value, through an integrated omnichannel experience."

Some food and drug retail industry analysts have speculated that the Kroger-Walgreens relationship could lead to a broader collaboration — potentially the sale of Kroger’s supermarket pharmacies to Walgreens, à la the deal between Target Corp. and CVS Health. In December 2015, Target closed a $1.9 billion agreement to sell its 1,672 pharmacies to CVS, which now operates them under the CVS Pharmacy banner inside Target discount stores.

Kroger currently operates about 2,270 pharmacies in its 2,761 stores. As of the end of its fiscal 2019 third quarter ended May 31, Walgreens Boots Alliance had 9,390 drugstores under the Walgreens and Duane Reade banners in its Retail Pharmacy USA unit. The addition of Kroger’s pharmacies would make Walgreens the largest U.S. retail pharmacy operator by locations, surpassing CVS, which has about 9,900 pharmacy locations.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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