Walgreens Is Debuting 24-Hour Delivery in 400 Stores

Walgreens is introducing 24-hour delivery at 400 stores, the company announced Thursday.

“Walgreens knows that taking care of health and wellbeing isn’t exclusive to business hours and that needs can pop up at any time of day,” said Stefanie Kruse, group vice president of digital commerce at the company.

Walgreens already began offering services including same-day delivery with DoorDash — which started a few months after the pandemic began, and delivery within one hour within certain time frames.

This new service promises customers can “receive an assortment of more than 27,000 items delivered in as little as one hour, no matter the time of day,” the company said.

The move reflects continued attempts from retailers to get into people’s homes and more creative ways to do that, from Amazon and Walmart getting into drone delivery to retailers like Sephora partnering with DoorDash on makeup delivery.

Related: Amazon Reveals New Drone Meant For Faster City Deliveries

Still, Walgreens sells items that people tend to need after typical delivery hours, like cough drops or cold medicine.

“There are a lot of reasons I would want a Walgreens delivery at 3 in the morning,” Jonah Ellin, chief product officer at a retail research firm 1010data told USA Today.

He further told the outlet that retail has become more and more about quick delivery. “People want it on demand. They want it now,” he said.

People will be able to order from the 400 participating Walgreens stores that already operate on a 24-hour basis. DoorDash and UberEats drivers will complete the deliveries, per USA Today.

The company is offering a promotional code for the new service called “NOW20” which offers free deliveries on orders over $20 through December 10.

However, the company said in the release the service is not available in Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

There are also a few caveats: The company says in the release that one-hour delivery is available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. but other times could be variable.

“Order cut-off times may vary by store location. 24-hour delivery service is based on courier availability,” the release added.

Further, you can only order alcohol from “select” stores in Illinois and Florida, it said.