Pink Dot is a quick delivery prepared-to-order grocery store based on the Sunset Strip in

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages ...

, California. The store has appeared in several movies and television shows, including HBO's ''

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''.

History

Entrepreneur Bill Toro founded the chain in 1987 with the purchase of a single

liquor store A liquor store is a retail shop that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors – typically in bottles – usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence (i ...

. His idea to create a delivery-based operation arose from numerous complaints he observed about the traffic in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Pink Dot is a privately owned corporation with Toro retaining 30% control. In 1996, Pink Dot was referred to as a rapidly expanding grocery delivery company in a ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' story that noted the store guaranteed delivery within 45 minutes for a service charge of $9.99. Orders were filled from five warehouses.George Whit
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE
Convenience Stores; Grocery Deliverers Find a Time-Strapped Audience page 1 August 21, 1996 Los Angeles Times Company executives at the time predicted home delivery would become a "big part of the changing face of retail." As Pink Dot prepared to expand into

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

, the company phased out its signature polka-dotted, propeller-topped

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delivery cars after market tests showed that Orange County residents wanted their purchases delivered in more low-profile vehicles.Leslie Earnes
O.C. Business Plus; HEARD ON THE BEAT / RETAIL
Pink Dot Dumps Its Funky Beetle July 7, 1999 Los Angeles Times Pink Dot partnered with order takers such as the now-defunct

Kozmo.com Kozmo.com was a venture-capital-funded online company that promised free one-hour delivery of "videos, games, dvds, music, mags, books, food, basics & more" and Starbucks coffee in several major cities in the United States. It was founded by yo ...

, which went defunct in the bursting of the

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, as a way to expand the product line into items such as

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s and

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Late 2000s

In 2008, Pink Dot announced a partnership with

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and began using the

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, a delivery system that Pink Dot president Sol Yamini described as "room service for your home." Later, Pink Dot partnered with

Postmates Postmates is a food delivery service, founded in 2011, and acquired by Uber in 2020. It offers local delivery of restaurant-prepared meals and other goods. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. , Postmates operates in 2,940 U.S. ...

to extend its offerings to app users.

References

External links

Pink Dot homepage
{{Supermarkets of the United States Retail companies established in 1987 Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Online food retailers of the United States