Curbside Ended at Target Already, is CVS next?

Posted on by RetailGuy

Curbside allows consumers to shop directly from their mobile phones and pick up right in front of the store without having to find items on shelves, wait in checkout lines or deal with the hassles of parking. The Curbside service is free, the app is free and the company does not mark up store prices. It is now available at Target stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Philadelphia markets. (Photo: Business Wire)

Last month I told you about a program coming to CVS for curbside pickup and mentioned several obstacles I saw that could impede it being a success.   Well, another major retailer has already given up on it after less than 2 years.

Target is bailing out, and with the synergy between Target and CVS right now, I’m sure there’s some internal communication between the two and I have the strong feeling that Curbside will not be rolled out to all 7800+ CVS stores as promised.  Since store employees in my area haven’t heard a thing about it, it may not even go any farther than the few test areas they’ve rolled it out to.

Coming soon–Drone Delivery!!  Order your toothpaste, prescription and some bathroom towels from Target and they will be dropped on your doorstep within the hour.  I probably wouldn’t order a glass vase though.

 

 

If you were hoping that Target’s curbside pickup would eventually reach your city, your hopes are for naught: Target tells Consumerist the pilot program will be discontinued effective June 15.

After Consumerist received word that the program — which kicked off in October 2014 with partner Curbside, and was being tested in 121 stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles — would be shut down, we reached out to Target headquarters.

The company confirmed what we’d heard, saying in an emailed statement that it had “learned a lot” from the pilot, but “as we’ve shared for months now, at this time Target is focused on making sure we deliver and execute on retail fundamentals.”

That includes devoting more of its resources toward “enhancing” its “core of digital-stores offerings such as Cartwheel, Order Pickup and shipping online orders from stores.”

“The pilot with Curbside will be discontinued in mid-June as part of those efforts,” Target says.

Because we’re feeling nostalgic, here’s a (very brief) timeline of events that led up to the program going kaput:

August 2014: Target and Curbside launched their pilot program at stores in the San Francisco Bay area. (Warning: auto-play video at that link)

October 2015: Target and Curbside expanded their partnership to an additional 100 stores, bringing the service to select stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

May 17, 2016: Target digital chief Jason Goldberger told Re/Code that customers shouldn’t expect to see an increase in partnerships with startups like Curbside and Instacart.

 

Source: Consumerist.com