Content about Retail

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Peeps candy, a Just Born brand, will roll out two new summertime flavors to retailers nationwide, the company announced today. Just Born also announced Mike and Ike Lemonade Blends will return for its fourth consecutive summer.

The new Peeps products include Peeps Bubble Gum-flavored Marshmallow Chicks and Peeps Sweet Lemonade Marshmallow Chicks.

LAS VEGAS — Top-notch talents will be featured here at the Westin Hotel immediately before the inaugural Total Store Expo event to discuss top-line retail strategies. Hosted by the Mack Elevation Forum along with The Drug Store News Group, the one-day summit event, “The Seven Ideas to Create the Future,” will give attendees a grasp of industry best practices in marketing, merchandising and retail consumer packaged goods strategy.

This month Walgreens announced that it would begin to offer chronic care services at its Take Care Clinics. Its biggest competitor, MinuteClinic, made a similar announcement about a year ago. With full implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the people paying the bills are going to get a good look at what retail clinics can do to lower costs and improve outcomes.

ST. LOUIS — Westport Pharmaceuticals has been showcasing its Zephrex-D "meth-resistant" pseudoephedrine-based decongestant that is now available in retail stores throughout Missouri. It's a hot product as much for the sales generated, as for the sales not lost.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Polaroid unveiled its new concept, Polaroid Fotobar, here, in February, with plans to open at least 10 locations this year. The 2,000-sq.-ft. store is positioned both as a place to shop and a center for recreation and entertainment, allowing customers to release "trapped" photos and display them as premium-quality art. Customers can select pictures taken with their phones and wirelessly transmit them to a bar-top workstation for ordering prints or instantly uploading them to Facebook, Instagram, Picasa and other platforms.

Rite Aid's latest Wellness store concept features a new interactive Vision Center kiosk that allows customers to try new frames in the store and order prescription glasses and contact lenses for home delivery. It's not only an example of flowing self-diagnostic solutions into the self-care aisles, but it also keeps those customers in the store longer. And because it's positioned opposite the pharmacy, it can make that quick wait for the prescription that was just dropped off that much faster.

There's a lot to like about the As Seen On TV category. It has a sell-through rate between 10% and 20%. Margins also are in the double-digits. Best of all, the products that make it to retail shelves are proven winners.

"Our market model is very sound," said AJ Khubani, CEO of TeleBrands. "As a group of companies, we test market hundreds of products on television, then bring the top 10 to retail. Drug chains are only getting the products that are most successful. They are consumer-tested with a known demand and significant advertising support."

Understanding the needs of the multicultural marketplace, personal care company Sundial Brands, the maker of SheaMoisture, is working to take a new general market positioning at retail. Richelieu Dennis, founder and CEO of Sundial Brands, talked with Drug Store News about the brand’s heritage and how it is catering to the needs of its customers.

DALLAS — Burgeoning manufacturing company Accelerated Manufacturing Solutions is anticipating an exciting year ahead as it celebrates two key achievements: the launch of its new brand of soft cosmetic bags and travel cases, which has already gained distribution at Walmart, and being awarded the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council certification for woman-owned businesses.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Results of a survey indicate a positive response among patients to redesigned patient medication information distributed to patients at retail pharmacy chains in two states as part of an eight-week program.

Catalina Health said it launched the eight-week quality improvement initiative in August 2012 to disseminate the information focusing on three medications dispensed in stores in an unnamed "leading pharmacy chain" in California and Michigan.

CAMPTON, Ky. — Chuck Woolery, TV personality and game show host, has recently acquired a minority stake in Nature’s Health Connection, Inc., the makers of Australian Dream Arthritis Pain Relief Cream.

Mr. Woolery, who has recently appeared as a spokesperson in a radio commercial campaign for the pain relief cream, began using Australian Dream to treat his own minor arthritis pain. Mr. Woolery was so satisfied by the results he experienced with product, he decided to invest in the company.

DUBLIN, Calif. — Tria Beauty, a maker of light-based skin care products and technology, has inked a new partnership with beauty retailer Ulta.

Ulta will be featuring the Tria Hair Removal Laser 4X, the Tria Skin Perfecting Blue Light for acne and a line of topical skin care products on Ulta.com. The Tria Laser 4X and SmoothStart Calming Gel will launch in 25 Ulta doors in mid-April.