Duane Reade Expands UpMarket Offerings With Fro-Yo

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January 31, 2012

Walgreens continues efforts to innovate its retail stores with the latest addition of Fro-Yo frozen yogurt bars at Duane Reade in New York.

The renovated Duane Reade located at Broadway and 52nd Street reopened this week with the chain’s first self-serve frozen yogurt bar. UpMarket Fro-Yo is part of Duane Reade’s plan to become a total health, beauty and daily living destination, according to Duane Reade president, Joe Magnacca.

The UpMarket brand debuted last year at Duane Reade’s 40 Wall Street location with a sushi bar and juice bar. The addition of frozen yogurt is a continuation of the chain’s strategy to develop neighborhood-centric niche offerings and part of parent company Walgreen’s efforts to reinvent the drugstore experience.

Walgreen’s opened a flagship store in Chicago in January featuring UpMarket offerings including the Fro-Yo self serve frozen yogurt bar. Other store features include a juice bar and fountain for made-to-order smoothies and milkshakes, fresh hand-rolled sushi and sashimi prepared daily, and hundreds of fresh food items including produce and on-the-go meal options such as wraps, sandwiches and salads.

The store also features a Coca-Cola Freestyle machine capable of dispensing 130 varieties of Coca-Cola fountain drinks, a selection of more than 700 wines positioned to pair with artisan cheeses and an assortment of specialty meats and chocolates are also featured. A “LOOK Boutique” beauty department featuring dozens of prestige and niche cosmetic, skincare and hair care brands not typically found in drugstores and staffed with trained beauty advisors. And a nail bar offers professional manicures, and eyebrow shaping and other grooming services.

These efforts are being carried over to Duane Reade, which Walgreen’s acquired in 2010. Since then, the chain has expanded Duane Reade’s Good & Delish store brand, now carried at both chains, and relaunched Walgreen’s Deerfield brand under the Nice! store label. Nice! is now carried at both Walgreen’s and Duane Reade stores.

In New York, Fro-Yo greets shoppers at the entrance to the store across from the UpMarket Sushi and Juice bars and, through sophisticated design cues, instantly communicates a convenient destination and fast, fresh new alternative for discerning New Yorkers. The modern design was created by CBX, which also helped design Duane Reade’s signature private label strategy and package design system.

The curved space with machines canted at a 45-degree angle makes the flow and pedestrian traffic fluid and easy to navigate. The organic shape of the machines mimics the swirl of the frozen yogurt while a green accent subway tile leads customers through the entire journey with style from cup pick up to flavor choice and topping.

UpMarket Fro-Yo serves eight flavors of frozen yogurt along with a variety of toppings at a price of $5.99 per cup.

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