Doordash has announced that they have partnered with Walgreens to ultimately bring the entire Walgreens store to the door of 100 million Americans.

Doordash COO Christopher Payne discusses their new Walgreens delivery collaboration and explains how this deal is part of their customer-centric focus which has driven the company’s growth from its founding:

We Are Bringing The Entire Walgreens Store To Your Door

Our new partnership with Walgreens is going to be fabulous. We have 2,300 items that will be available to the Doordash customer base. We cover about 100 million Americans. This will bring for the first time Walgreens products in over the counter medicine, grocery, and household items and other categories that are totally appropriate for this COVID crisis that we are in.

While we are starting with 2,300 items we are going to rapidly grow that to 5,000 items, essentially bring the entire Walgreens store to your door on demand. That’s the key thing.

With COVID We Shifted Into Going Beyond Restaurants

One of the things we did with COVID is we shifted into going beyond restaurants and focused on empowering local economies by bringing other things that people want to be delivered into their home. Walgreens is a perfect example of that. We are going to ramp up to cover all of their stores over the coming months.

That will touch 100 million Americans. That’s a huge announcement today and we are thrilled to be in a collaboration with Walgreens.

Core To Us Is Listening To Our Customers

One thing that is true of this space is that it has been competitive since day one. What sets Doordash apart is we are not focused on our competitors. We have been focused on our customers. That is one of the core values of Doordash and is one of the key reasons we have a market share lead in food delivery in the United States. We are going to continue to focus on that. Core to us is listening to our customers and being merchant first.

Our original vision was to empower local economies. The idea is that we want to connect every local business to every local consumer. That’s a very different strategy than just broad ecommerce. That is making these businesses successful that are around you and me. That’s what sets Doordash apart and what will continue to set Doordash apart.

We Are In The Early Days Of This Category

We are in the early days of this category. We are not focused on what our competitors are doing. That is the right strategy for us. However, we won’t rule out potential acquisitions. We did a Caviar acquisition last last year that has gone incredibly well. Our focus has been on helping our merchants thrive. A great example of that is what has happened with COVID-19.

We swung into action back in March and April and designed a program called Main Street Strong. This exemplifies what I mean by merchant first. We built a program that generated $120 million in relief for merchants to keep them on their feet.

Doordash Restaurants 4-Times More Likely To Survive COVID

One stat that I love to share is restaurants that were on Doordash during this crisis were four times more likely to make it through the first wave by being on the platform. That $120 million in relief took the form of commission and promotion to drive sales to small businesses. We will continue to focus on our customers, our merchants, and our Dashers and that is what is key right now. We are not going to be bothered by what other companies are doing.