Walgreens makes a lucrative deal with Western Union

Walgreens has teamed up with Western Union on an initiative that may generate the drugstore chain a lot more traffic and sales.

The nation’s largest drugstore chain has launched Western Union Bill Payment services via digital self-service kiosks, allowing customers to make payments to 15,000 billers across the United States and beyond.

Customers can access Western Union services via Walgreens self-service kiosks where they can pay bills and also use existing Western Union international and domestic money transfer services. The kiosks are located in more than 7,800 Walgreens and Duane Reade locations in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and are the same kiosks where photo and BalanceTM Financial services are offered.

"Offering a fuller menu of financial services supports our drive to provide customers with ultimate convenience,” said Jay Bernstein, Walgreens manager of financial services. “With Western Union’s expanded offerings, customers can now visit our store to quickly pay an eligible utility bill or more easily transfer funds to a college student out-of-state or a relative overseas.”

Western Union service offerings via Walgreens allow customers to independently stage their transactions, and fund money transfers and bill payments via cash or pin-based debit, initiated at the self-service kiosk using a photo touchscreen and finalized at the register. The services are available at Walgreens stores between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. local time.

Western Union’s cross-border platform is a combination of a physical and digital network servicing 16,000 corridors across 200 countries and territories. Across its brands the company has over 500,000 retail agent locations around the world and over 100,000 ATMs and kiosks, and including the capability to send money to millions of bank accounts.