Rite Aid goes all in with Instacart delivery

Rite Aid has partnered with Instacart to offer same-day delivery of groceries and over-the-counter health care products through all of its drugstores.

Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid said this week that the Instacart rollout will bring home delivery service “during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond” to the pharmacy retailer’s more than 2,400 stores in 18 states. Rite Aid had recently expanded a pilot with Instacart in the Northwest.

The Instacart service excludes prescriptions. Rite Aid customers will be able to access the drug chain’s full catalog of grocery and health care products and daily essentials from their local store.

“At Rite Aid, we are focused on providing our customers and communities with the essentials they need during these unprecedented times,” Jim Peters, chief operating officer at Rite Aid said in a statement. “To further enhance our services, we have teamed up with Instacart to offer our customers another convenient method of shopping at Rite Aid from the safety and comfort of home.”

In Rite Aid stores, an Instacart personal shopper will pick, pack and deliver orders within the customer’s selected time frame, offering an alternative to in-store shopping, the companies noted. All Instacart orders now default to “leave at my door delivery” to promote social distancing and allow customers to receive deliveries safely.

Related:Publix launches same-day delivery of prescriptions

Rite Aid has expanded its food offering in recent years, including more perishables and a larger selection of private-label items. Some of the drug chain’s locations, especially in urban markets, carry a higher percentage of food products and serve as neighborhood grocery destinations. For the 2020 fiscal year, Rite Aid’s consumables sales totaled an estimated $5.09 billion, nearly a third of the company’s retail segment sales.

“We know people and families are depending on delivery to get their groceries and household essentials now more than ever, and we’re proud to partner with Rite Aid to offer customers another stay-at-home shopping alternative in the wake of COVID-19,” stated Nilam Ganenthiran, president of Instacart. “Bringing Rite Aid’s broad selection of health care and grocery products online will give customers more access to the goods they need, delivered directly from the store to their door.”

Rite Aid already offers curbside pickup and home delivery of prescriptions, as well as drive-thru service. San Francisco-based Instacart has made a foray into prescription delivery with Costco Wholesale, launching a pilot last fall in California and Washington and then in April rolling out the service to about 200 warehouse clubs in those two states plus Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, New York and the District of Columbia. Last week, Instacart reported that its prescription delivery service is now available at all of Costco’s 547 pharmacies in 42 states and D.C.

Related:Instacart moves forward with pharmacy partnership at Costco