SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon will add more than 1,500 package pickup locations in a partnership with the national pharmacy chain Rite Aid.

Starting Thursday, customers will be able to pick up orders at more than 100 Rite Aid stores and that will jump to more than 1,500 by the end of the year.

Major retailers broadsided by the lightening ascent of Amazon.com have discovered one advantage: physical locations where customers can pick up their items if they choose.

Amazon is trying to offset that advantage through partnerships and said Thursday that in addition to Rite Aid, it's looking for more small to midsized businesses as well as other large chains to ally itself with in a service it's calling "Counter."

Counter originally launched in the U.K. and Italy under different names.