Business Insider/Jessica Tyler Birchbox opened a mini store in Duane Reade, but it felt nothing like a typical drugstore.
- Birchbox, the beauty company known for its monthly subscription boxes, is moving into Walgreens.
- Birchbox opened pop-up stores in 11 Walgreens and Duane Reade drugstores as a pilot test this month.
- The stores will give Birchbox more exposure and help Walgreens be seen as more of a destination for beauty products.
- We visited a Birchbox store that opened in a Duane Reade location in Manhattan. Here's what it was like.
Birchbox is moving into Walgreens.
The two companies announced in October that Birchbox, the beauty company best known for its monthly subscription boxes, will be opening up shop in 11 different Walgreens and Duane Reade locations this month.
The new
The spaces feature warm lighting, bright colors, framed Birchboxes, and several makeup stations throughout. Each Birchbox store has company-trained beauty consultants and a separate register. When we visited the space, it felt completely separate from the rest of the Duane Reade, and nothing like shopping at a typical drugstore.
For Walgreens, the Birchbox stores will help it be seen as more of a beauty destination. The company has been investing more heavily in beauty since 2016, when it started carrying brands such as NYX and No7. It also introduced a beauty loyalty program and began adding beauty consultants to some stores that same year.
"We've been working on elevating and differentiating our beauty experience," Lauren Brindley, group vice president of beauty and personal care at Walgreens, told Fast Company in October. "We're trying to give our customers a reason to shop beauty more often."
We visited a Birchbox store that recently opened inside a Duane Reade in Manhattan. Here's what it was like:
