DISCUSSION
Drugstore/grocery pilot is two-thirds Walgreens and one-third Kroger
Written by George Anderson
Photo: The Kroger Co
Kroger and Walgreens have provided more details on the 13-store pilot program the two chains announced in October and the scope of the program appears to be even larger, at least from a footprint standpoint, than previously let on.
The Kroger Express store-within-a-store concept will take up about 4,000-square-feet of each Walgreens, about a third of the typical selling space within the chain’s drugstores. Walgreens launched the first test location in Florence, KY with plans to open the rest in the northern part of the state in early 2019.
Each test location will carry an assortment of 2,300 products curated by store using an analysis of customer data from Kroger’s 84.51º subsidiary. The Kroger Express shops will sell fresh produce, meat, dairy, frozen and an assortment from the grocer’s private labels with an emphasis on its Simple Truth natural and organic line.
Robert Clark, senior vice president of merchandising for Kroger, said the pilot locations will serve as a destination for Walgreens customers to do some of their fill-in grocery shopping.
The test stores along, with 65 other Walgreens in the Chicago market, will also sell Kroger’s Home Chef meal kits. As part of the pilot, Walgreens will sell three Home Chef meal kits with recipes changing on a bi-weekly basis. Consumers in Chicagoland may already be familiar with the Home Chef line from its online sales and availability at Kroger-owned stores in the market.
Mr. Clark said customers at Kroger-owned Mariano’s have “responded favorably” to the kits sold in its stores and the Walgreens expansion will offer “more Chicagoans convenient access to a quick, simple meal.”