Walmart to deliver US prescription medications in as soon as 30 minutes
Adds new details from Walmart spokesperson in paragraphs 6- 10
Oct 22 (Reuters) - U.S. retailer Walmart WMT.N on Tuesday said it will start delivering prescription medicines and medication refills along with groceries and other items as a single order within 30 minutes, upping the ante in its delivery competition against Amazon Inc AMZN.O.
Walmart's move comes a couple of weeks after Amazon announced plans to open pharmacies offering same-day delivery options across 20 new U.S. cities in 2025. It is also an extension of Walmart's previous efforts to mail prescription medications which typically took at least five to seven business days.
The speedier prescription delivery service would compete against other same-day pharmacy delivery offerings provided by retailers such as CVS Health CVS.N and Walgreens WBA.O.
Walmart, which operates 4,600 U.S. pharmacies and 3,000 vision centers across the country, said its pharmacy delivery service would be free for members of its $98 per year Walmart Plus membership program while non-members need to pay $9.95.
The service will be available to customers in 49 states by the end of January next year. Currently, customers in six states, namely Arkansas, Missouri, New York, Nevada, South Carolina and Wisconsin can usethe service.
Walmart said it decided to launch the service after more than half of respondents in an internal consumer research survey expressed a desire to have prescription medications delivered along with groceries and other items in one order.
Walmart will use drivers from its Spark Driver gig-delivery network to make some of these speedy deliveries, a company spokesman said in an email. The company also employs other options to deliver orders within 30 minutes, such as drones.
Barring controlled substances, refrigeration items and Medicare Part B products, such as wheelchairs and oxygen containers, all medications are delivery eligible.
When customers place a pharmacy delivery order through Walmart's app or website, they must agree to terms allowing Walmart's pharmacy staff to contact their physicians and provide counseling by phone, the spokesperson said.
A delivery timeframe does not begin until prescriptions are authorized by a customer's physician. Once approved, customers can add the medications to their cart and pick either same-day, on-demand or express delivery timeframe, the spokesperson added.
This prescription delivery service is Walmart's latest effort to focus on its pharmacy network, following its decision toclose51 health clinics and its virtual healthcare operations in April.
Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in New York and Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Alistair Bell
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Penafian: Entiti XM Group menyediakan perkhidmatan pelaksanaan sahaja dan akses ke Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian, yang membolehkan sesorang melihat dan/atau menggunakan kandungan yang ada di dalam atau melalui laman web, tidak bertujuan untuk mengubah atau memperluas, juga tidak mengubah atau mengembangkannya. Akses dan penggunaan tersebut tertakluk kepada: (i) Terma dan Syarat; (ii) Amaran Risiko; dan Penafian Penuh. Oleh itu, kandungan sedemikian disediakan tidak lebih dari sekadar maklumat umum. Terutamanya, perlu diketahui bahawa kandungan Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian bukan permintaan, atau tawaran untuk melakukan transaksi dalam pasaran kewangan. Berdagang dalam mana-mana pasaran kewangan melibatkan tahap risiko yang besar terhadap modal anda.
Semua bahan yang diterbitkan di Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian kami bertujuan hanya untuk tujuan pendidikan/maklumat dan tidak mengandungi – dan tidak boleh dianggap mengandungi nasihat kewangan, cukai pelaburan atau dagangan dan cadangan, atau rekod harga dagangan kami, atau tawaran, atau permintaan untuk suatu transaksi dalam sebarang instrumen kewangan atau promosi kewangan yang tidak diminta kepada anda.
Sebarang kandungan pihak ketiga serta kandungan yang disediakan oleh XM, seperti pendapat, berita, penyelidikan, analisis, harga, maklumat lain atau pautan ke laman web pihak ketiga yang terdapat dalam laman web ini disediakan berdasarkan "seadanya" sebagai ulasan pasaran umum dan bukanlah nasihat pelaburan. Sesuai dengan apa-apa kandungan yang ditafsir sebagai penyelidikan pelaburan, anda mestilah ambil perhatian dan menerima bahawa kandungan tersebut tidak bertujuan dan tidak sediakan berdasarkan keperluan undang-undang yang direka untuk mempromosikan penyelidikan pelaburan bebas dan oleh itu, ia dianggap sebagai komunikasi pemasaran di bawah peraturan dan undang-undang yang berkaitan. SIla pastikan bahawa anda telah membaca dan memahami Notifikasi mengenai Penyelidikan Pelaburan Bukan Bebas dan Amaran Risiko mengenai maklumat di atas yang boleh diakses di sini.
