Walmart and Amazon Are Competing To Become Your Go-To Pharmacy — Through the Mail
Closing stores and cutting costs won’t be enough for America’s largest pharmacy businesses — just ask Rite Aid. CVS and Walgreens have been losing ground to competitors like Amazon, Walmart, and Costco. To maintain their core business, they’ll now have to wage war in the mail-order space as well.
- On Tuesday, Walmart announced it would roll out same-day prescription drug delivery to 49 states by January — free for Walmart+ members and $9.95 for non-Walmart+ users.
- Walmart is joining Amazon, which launched same-day drug delivery in a handful of markets earlier this year — and plans to double its footprint to 20 new US cities throughout 2025.
Bad prognosis: With and down 25% and 62% this year, respectively, investors have been fleeing brick-and-mortar pharmacies — even though they’re still preferred by some insurers. But Walmart and Amazon aren’t their only problem as startups like Capsule, Instacart, and Alto ramp up same-day pharmacy delivery. This might be why CVS is considering splitting off its struggling pharmacy business, which would allow its other units to soar separately. Walgreens, on the other hand, is just hoping things improve.
