CVS Invests In Silicon Valley Startup Curbside

CVS Health Corp

announced its investment in Curbside and partnered with the California start up to create CVS Express, which allows shoppers buy products online and then pick them up about an hour later at a nearby store without any additional charges. http://www.benzinga.com/node/7855825 CVS is betting on convenience with CVS Express, where an employee of the store will deliver the ordered goods to the shopper's car and it allows shoppers get the goods without leaving their cars. According to the company press release, CVS Express, which is applicable to all front store and over-the-counter items, is currently available in San Francisco, Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta. The service will be extended to additional CVS Pharmacy locations later this year. CVS has about 9,600 retail pharmacies in the country. "Our proprietary location technology ensures seamless, reliable order handoff at the moment a customer arrives and our console app powers an efficient pick and pack operation for CVS Pharmacy colleagues to prepare orders in the store," Jaron Waldman, co-founder and CEO of Curbside, said in a statement. The trend of curbside pickups is increasing as retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

have deployed curbside pickup programs to help time-starved shoppers. Shares of CVS were up 0.71 percent to $103.23.