Drugstore.com was an internet retailer in health and beauty care products. Its web operations were launched on February 24, 1999.
In June 1999, Rite Aid entered into a ten-year strategic relationship with Drugstore.com which allowed Drugstore.com customers to pick up prescriptions at Rite Aid stores, and enabled Drugstore.com to sell Rite Aid products, as well as vitamins from retailer General Nutrition Center (GNC). On September 3, 2008, Drugstore.com amended and restated both the main agreement and the pharmacy supply and services agreement dated June 17, 1999 between Rite Aid and Drugstore.com. Through those agreements with Rite Aid, Drugstore.com had access to Rite Aid customers through the RiteAid.com website and the Rite Aid online store, which was powered by the Drugstore.com website. Drugstore.com ended a sourcing deal with Amazon.com in 2005. In addition to the Drugstore.com website, the company also maintains storefronts at Beauty.com, VisionDirect.com, Lensmart.com, Lensworld.com, and Lensquest.com.
It is headquartered at 411 108th Ave. NE, Suite 1600; Bellevue, WA 98004; (425) 372-3200.
Its customer service centers are located in Bellevue, Washington and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
DS Distribution, Inc., located in the Pureland Industrial Complex in Logan Township, New Jersey, is its wholly owned subsidiary responsible for the distribution of OTC products, beauty.com products, and CNS (Custom Nutrition Services) products. Distribution of VisionDirect.com products is from a center in Logan Township, New Jersey. Prescriptions are handled by Walgreens.
It has an "FSA store" containing items that are likely to be eligible for purchase using a medical flexible spending account, and by extension a health reimbursement account or health savings account as well. This in turn led to its invention of the very first inventory information approval system (IIAS) in 2005; it wasn't used in brick-and-mortar retailing until 2006 by Walgreens. Under a 2006 Internal Revenue Service ruling, IIAS must be installed by every grocery store, discount store, and Internet pharmacy that accepts FSA debit cards by the end of 2007, and by most chain pharmacies by the end of 2008.
On December 28, 2009, Drugstore.com said that it would buy Salu Inc., the operator of SkinStore.com, for $36 million.
On March 24, 2011, Drugstore.com was acquired by Walgreens for $409 million.
On July 28, 2016, Walgreens said it would shut down Drugstore.com, as well as Beauty.com, to focus on its own Walgreens.com website.
References
External links
- Drugstore.com website
- Hoovers Fact Sheet
- Yahoo Finance - Drugstore.com will buy Salu Inc. for $36 million
