Target customers can pick up a latte with their paper towels./Photo: Shutterstock
Target is adding Starbucks lattes and other specialties of the coffee chain to the array of products customers can pre-order and have delivered to their cars.
The retailer said it intends to offer the service at 200 of its stores by the start of the holiday season.
The ability to pick up a cup of Starbucks coffee along with other items ordered through Target’s Drive-Up curbside delivery program was the top request of Target shoppers, according to COO John Mulligan.
“This has been a request for a long time from guests. ‘I’m getting milk. I’m getting diapers. Why can’t I get my latte to go as well?’” he said.
In a limited test that began in the second quarter, the option was “very, very popular,” Mulligan added. He provided few other details, but noted that a scaled-down version of Starbucks’ drinks menu was used in the test.
The new service was revealed to financial analysts Wednesday as one of the reasons for the retailer’s high expectations for the fourth quarter.
Executives revealed few particulars about how the process would work.
Target CFO Michael Fiddelke noted that the Drive-Up service generated “high single-digit” sales growth during the third quarter after increasing by 80% in 2021.
The service allows customers to place their orders remotely through Target’s website or app and then pull into designated pick-up spots store-side. An employee runs the orders out to the shopper’s car.
With about 1,938 stores, Target is one of the largest retailers in the United States. Target did not reveal how many of its stores feature a Starbucks inside.
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