Walgreens Stages a Private Label House Party

Walgreens staged a “house party” in a Chicago loft this month to show how its wide assortment of private label items can fit into a shopper’s home and everyday life. Held in Chicago's Fulton Market district on May 16, the event served to spotlight private label brands such as Nice!, Sleek MakeUP and Pet Shoppe, as well as drum up excitement for the retailer's two new private brands: Complete Home, a packaged household goods line, and Finest Nutrition “Free & Pure,” a line of vitamins "free from" ingredients such as artificial flavors, colors and preservatives. The event offered attendees cooking demonstrations, beauty treatments and consultations, alcoholic drinks and light bites, while in a surrounding subtly infused with Walgreens' products in places such as nightstands, countertops and bathrooms. “You can [deck] out your entire home with Walgreens owned brand,” said Laura Hayes, Walgreens' director, retail and owned brand communications, at the event. “I mean, I've bought an electric kettle from our owned brand for our office to make tea."Helayna Minsk, group vice president of Walgreens owned brands, added that for this event "we wanted to highlight the breadth and quality of our Walgreens owned brands portfolio. Our brands can help fully stock your home, and offer both value and convenience. Not only was this event successful at showcasing our owned brand products and their quality, it also shed light on the various expertise you can find in store from our beauty consultants to pharmacists.”Walgreens’ owned offerings range from Pet Shoppe pet toys and beds to new Nice! organic honey and popcorn, and help the retailer in its effort to become a one-stop shop. “A customer comes in for a prescription, they can pick up photos, they can pick up disinfecting wipes, they can pick up honey, they can pick up things that they need for their house,” Hayes said. “We're not just a pharmacy anymore. That's always going to be our core business, but we're trying to offer our customers more convenience, too.”Though the event was not open to the general public, reporters and influencers were invited to the party by public relations agency and WPP company Burson Cohn & Wolfe. Below is a walkthrough of my experience. The party’s main area to congregate was the loft’s open space living room and kitchen, where attendees were able to mingle, grab a drink from the bar, listen to an on-site DJ or take photographs against a backdrop of branded depictions of private label bottles. Small bites, such as veggie chips, were passed around the party. The food was not conspicuously branded, but was most assuredly private label (or at least made with owned brand items). A "candy bar" stocked with Nice! treats encouraged attendees to sample the confectionery and take some home in a Walgreens-branded bag.On the other side of the candy bar, decorative candles from Complete Home were displayed for guests to touch and smell. Cooking demonstrations highlighted Walgreens' private-label packaged food assortment as ideal for sides or as ingredients for dishes. A “chicken and waffle” demonstration, for example, featured Nice! Buffalo chicken wings.A decorative “white chocolate cranberry almond bark” made with Nice! Cranberries and almonds was also on display at the event to further underscore the cooking and entertaining possibilities of packaged food SKUs from the brand. Beauty consultants were on site highlighting private label cosmetics such as Sleek MakeUP and spotlighting the retailer’s beauty services, including makeup and skin care consultations. Attendees were able to try on a few items and get recommendations.A pharmacist was also on site to walk attendees through medicine cabinet essentials, positioning the SKUs as national-brand equivalents.Various private label items were scattered in multiple areas throughout the loft home, showcasing how the retailer’s owned brands can fit into a shopper’s everyday life. A suitcase in one room contained “vacation essentials” such as store brand menstrual pads and contact lens solution, for example.Bathrooms in the loft were stocked with items such as new Complete Home tissue paper.Complete Home facial tissue was also positioned on night stands in select rooms alongside Walgreens Wal-Sleep Z and new Finest Nutrition “Free & Pure” vitamins.For a complete gallery of images showcasing all the product vignettes from this event, click here. For more information on Walgreens’ private label strategy, visit the “Private Label” section within the retailer’s profile.

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