Walmart's Latest Challenge toward CVS: 30-Minute Prescription Deliveries Reimagined
Walmart's pitch to customers is straightforward: get your prescription filled, coupled with grocery delivery, all in a single order. Prescription delivery was the most demanded service by customers, as stated in a press release by the company.
In a Tuesday declaration, Tom Ward, executive vice president and chief eCommerce officer of Walmart U.S., commented, "If you're unwell, we can deliver the essential medication along with everything else you need to recover."
The service, currently operational in six states and scheduled to expand to 49 states by 2025, will be accessible to over 86% of American households, according to Walmart. The company operates nearly 4,600 pharmacy locations across the United States.
Drugstore chains CVS and Walgreens have faced significant downsizing for years due to shifting consumer habits, competition, and transformations in the pharmacy industry, as the news of Walmart's prescription delivery service suggests.
CVS, the largest US chain, shuttered 244 stores between 2018 and 2020. In 2021, it announced plans to close an additional 900 stores. More recently, Walgreens shared that it will be closing around 1,200 locations, while CVS revealed plans for about 2,900 corporate job cuts.
Walmart's venture into prescription delivery not only intensifies competition for traditional pharmacies but also challenges rivals like Amazon, which launched its own pharmacy in 2020 to deliver prescriptions to Prime members with free two-day delivery.
As financial hardships persist, pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens struggle to compete effectively against competitors like Walmart and Amazon who boast robust online prescriptions and traditional products like household items and snacks typically sold in the store's front.
This expansion of Walmart's prescription delivery service will undoubtedly impact the business of competitors, such as CVS and Walgreens, as they also face challenges due to shifting consumer habits and online competition. Walmart's strategy of providing prescription delivery along with grocery delivery can potentially attract more customers to its business.
