Ah, curbside service. It was once the idle daydream of the profoundly lazy to be able to drive up to a store and have a chipper team member hand-deliver your goods to the trunk of your car. It summons up images of full-service gas stations of yesteryear. where a neatly dressed young man in a striped bowtie might fill up your tank with a smile.
But in 2020, Covid pushed businesses to think of ways to meet their customers' needs with as little contact as possible. Seemingly in a blink, drive-up services were being offered everywhere, for everything from groceries to pet food. And despite the stress of the global pandemic, people found there was something to enjoy after all: how nice it was to have some help in something as simple as getting their errands done. Today it's unthinkable for many to consider ever going back to the old ways.
While it seems as if curbside pickup services became a thing during 2020 thanks to Covid, has actually been around a bit longer than that. Target (TGT). Drive-Up and Order Pickup launched back in 2018, and although it took until 2019 to get it to all 50 states, the company has worked continuously to improve the service ever since. Grocery pickup was added in 2020, and now, there are two new additions that are basically the best thing ever.
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Target curbside pickup: What's New?
The next time you go to grab your Target Drive Up order, you can add a Starbucks (SBUX) drink using the Target app and they'll bring it to your car. Yes, this is a real thing and not a fantasy that you idly dreamt of while staring out of your office window. It will be demoed in select cities this fall and should roll out to more later in the year. Because if you have a car full of excited kids that might be screaming by the time you hit both Target and Starbucks, this could literally be a saving grace for your sanity.
Speaking of saving time, the other addition is Drive-Up returns. So you can make a new order, return something you bought previously, and get a Grande Iced Caramel Macchiato to top it all off.
Target chief stores officer Mark Schindele says that the decision to add these new services was inspired by customer requests. “Ongoing investments in our same-day services have built trust and relevance with our guests while meeting their needs — no matter how they choose to shop,” he said.
How does this benefit Target?
Just like all of Target's curbside pickup offerings, doing returns and making Starbucks drink orders is free. These services aren't about earning additional revenue--not directly. Schindele explained it best himself: building trust with customers matters. And what better way to do so than to take some of the stress of unending piles of errands off their plates?
The new services also give Target Curbside Pickup a clear advantage over Walmart (WMT), which is its direct competitor for the service. Both companies have reported financial gains as of late, as Target's Q3 2021 earnings report saw gains across multiple sectors and Walmart reported stronger fourth-quarter earnings than expected. But Target's latest move will likely buy the retailer even more customer loyalty, leaving Walmart to consider what its next move should be.
And, of course, while rival Amazon (AMZN) can deliver a lot of things -- it can't bring you a fresh cup of coffee. That might be a small thing, but for some people being able to place their Starbucks order while also picking up their groceries will bring a small, but meaningful, bit of joy to their day.
