Walgreens Cafe W gets more prominent position

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. A new Walgreens store design is giving the drugstore chain’s Cafe W beverage-center concept a higher-profile position, according to CSP. The new stores include a “W Market” section in the front of the store that features many traditional products and a 12-foot coffee/beverage counter along the front wall near the checkout.

Cafe W is a three-year-old concept that has seen many iterations from a four-foot section with a single coffee dispenser to 16-foot countertops offering coffee, fountain drinks and ICEE products, along with a variety of bakery, snack items and even packaged sandwiches in some sites.

“There have been different versions of Cafe W as we tested it, refined it and started rolling it out,” a Walgreens spokesoman said. “At this time, typical Cafe Ws are self-serve counters that have one or two coffee machines, fountain soda and ICEEs. Snack displays can include single-serving cookies, crackers, breakfast-type bars, nuts and candy.”

She added that “several hundred” Walgreens locations include Cafe W, “and we’re still rolling them out. We have not released the number of Cafe Ws we plan to have, or where they will be,” she said. “This is an evolving concept, so Cafe W may not stay the same going forward.”

Two other big changes in the design are:

• aisles running left-to-right rather than front-to-back.
• gondolas nearest the entrance of the store standing only four-feet high, providing open sightlines to the back of the store.