HILLSIDE, Ill. It has been scuttlebutt for years that Walgreens drugstores were planning to get back into the coffee game after pulling its soda fountains/cafes out in the 1970s. This week, the company made good on the gossip by placing a coffee/specialty drink kiosk in a store in Hillside, Ill.
Called Everyday Delights, the 4-ft. endcap offers consumers nine hot beverages from a single machine. The 12-oz. and 20-oz. drinks are priced at 79 cents and 99 cents, respectively. According to an employee of the store, the Hillside site is the second Chicago-area [image-nocss] store to receive the pilot program.
Attempts to reach a spokesperson at the company's Deerfield, Ill., headquarters were unsuccessful.
The signage on the machine advertises fresh espresso specialty drinks featuring General Foods International [and] Maxwell House 100% Colombian coffees. The nine drinks available from the machine, which was not yet operable as of yesterday morning, include:
Caf a Mocha Caf a Latte Cappuccino Regular Coffee French Vanilla Latte French Vanilla Espresso Hot Chocolate Chai Tea Chai Tea LatteThe addition of the coffee bar comes about 17 months after Walgreen Co. put bakery and wrapped-sandwich kiosks into some of its stores in the Chicago area.
Advertising low-cal./low-fat gourmet meals from $1.99 to $5.99, the sandwich rack in one store offered eight kinds of sandwiches, as well as wraps, pasta, and both fruit and vegetable salads. The bakery kiosk included bagels, muffins, cookies and croissants delivered fresh daily. That kiosk is now on a neighboring endcap at the Hillside store.
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