Rite Aid and Uber Eats Add Alcohol Delivery in 8 States

Rite Aid has expanded its partnership with Uber Eats to include alcohol delivery in eight states.

With this expansion, the pharmacy chain and the on-demand app now offer delivery of alcohol from nearly 1,000 Rite Aid stores in California, Idaho, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia and Washington, the companies said in a Tuesday (April 30) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

“Our collaboration and trusted partnership with Uber Eats underscores our commitment to meeting the evolving needs of our customers and providing a seamless digital shopping experience that complements their busy lives,” Jeanniey Walden, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Rite Aid, said in the release.

Adults of legal drinking age in select markets can shop alcohol brands from Rite Aid at ubereats.com or on the Uber Eats app, according to the release.

This new offering joins the thousands of household essentials and personal care products already available for ordering and delivery through the Rite Aid digital storefront on Uber Eats, per the release.

“Through our expanded partnership with Rite Aid, we’re excited to continue to help consumers get more of what they want — all at the touch of a button,” Beryl Sanders, director of U.S. grocery and retail partnerships at Uber, said in the release.

Uber has been expanding its alcoholic beverage selection for years, PYMNTS reported in August 2023. Doing so helps Uber Eats not only drive adoption of its non-restaurant offerings but also boost the unit economics with higher-ticket categories.

Another aggregator, DoorDash, said in November 2023 that it was making beer, wine and spirits delivery available to more locations. When announcing the expansion of its alcohol delivery business to New Jersey, DoorDash said that its alcohol pickup and delivery business more than doubled between 2021 and 2022.

Aggregators are leveraging their alcohol offerings to create additional sales occasions and/or increase typical orders’ basket size. For example, DoorDash has said that the addition of alcoholic beverages to its delivery options presents it with the opportunity to drive sales of these items to consumers who already engage with its restaurant offerings rather than asking them to go out of their way to order these beverages separately.