Content about Special Reports

April 25, 2011

“After all, we’re from around here, too.” That message, delivered to millions of Texas consumers via the pharmacy page on H-E-B’s heavily scanned website, lies at the heart of the San Antonio-based supermarket chain’s seemingly unshakeable grip on both customers and patients in the Lone Star State. The H.E. Butt Grocery Co. maintains high marks for customer loyalty, innovative patient care services, a quality shopping experience and plenty of healthy choices in its food aisles.


April 25, 2011

Hannaford’s commitment to health and wellness made headlines back in 2006 when 
it implemented the innovative Guiding Stars system — the first storewide nutrition navigation system in the United States. Now, five years later, the company’s dedication to healthy living remains strong.


April 25, 2011


One way for a supermarket to convey its health-and-wellness commitment to customers is to build a marketing campaign around it. 


In Harris Teeter’s case, the campaign is “Yourwellness.” Now in its sixth year, the initiative offers “evidence-based guidance on important health issues” and help with nutritional choices throughout the store, according to the company.


April 25, 2011


In the May issue of Consumer Reports, a report found that such independents as McKesson’s Health Mart franchise group are delivering the goods.


McKesson helped capitalize on what has always been an exemplary Health Mart patient experience at the top of last year with a multi-
million-dollar ad campaign that included an ad during the New Orleans Saints/Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl. That 2010 campaign featured real Health Mart pharmacists with stories on how they have impacted their local communities by taking the time to care and provide special services.


April 25, 2011

The typical first-time customer walking into a Hy-Vee store will probably see it as a supermarket, but what makes Hy-Vee stick out is its strong emphasis on pharmacy programs and health and wellness.


April 25, 2011


Most Care Pharmacies are located within and around the nation’s capital, and that suggests Care represents the face of pharmacy for a lot of influential Beltway executives. 


“[That proximity] really is an opportunity for us to represent independent pharmacy,” said Michael Wysong, Care CEO, whose office resides in the same building as the National Community Pharmacists Association. “We [also] co-market a [quality assurance] manual with NCPA. That’s a perfect example where we’re working hand in hand.”


April 25, 2011

Offering a holistic approach to health is the goal of K-VA-T Food City stores, integrating pharmacy, food and good living.


To this end, last spring the chain launched NuVal, a nutritional scoring system that helps consumers make better food choices. The system was launched in all stores, and according to Don Clark, VP pharmacy services, it’s doing very well. 


April 25, 2011

Kerr Drug describes its free prescription delivery service — launched in fall 2010 and renewed to positive customer response for 2011 — as “old school innovation.” If “old school” means anticipating consumers’ health and everyday-product needs, and meeting them with a down-home approach to store service and a broader-than-usual menu of pharmacy care options, then the tag could apply to Kerr’s entire business strategy.


April 25, 2011

One has to admire a person who perseveres through hardship and difficulty, and the same goes for companies that keep going and keep trying, no matter what the market throws at them.


April 25, 2011

Lewis Drug has a new face, which not only places a greater emphasis on the front end, but also boasts a larger, revamped pharmacy. 


Those who have visited the newly opened store on Louise Avenue in Sioux Falls, S.D., undoubtedly will see the Lewis Drug store of the future, president and CEO Mark Griffin told Drug Store News in a recent interview.


April 25, 2011

Cleveland, Ohio-based Marc’s will sell almost anything, provided it can price the item low and turn it quickly. But it won’t sell shrunken heads.


“We went to one customs auction a while ago and bought some artifacts,” said company founder Marc Glassman in a recent YouTube video. “Then we found out we’d bought some real shrunken heads from Peru. We were quite embarrassed.”


April 25, 2011

The Midwest is known for flat landscapes and fertile farm fields stretching to the horizon, but it also is home to one of the country’s oldest and most successful mass merchandise chains — one with a long history of strong emphasis on pharmacy programs.


Where a growing number of chains have adopted generic discount programs, Meijer has taken to giving many drugs away for free. The list of medications that customers can obtain at no charge now includes metformin for Type 2 diabetes, prenatal vitamins and most antibiotics.


April 25, 2011

Chain pharmacies and independent pharmacies each have their advantages and disadvantages. Chains generally follow a top-down business model that requires all stores to be roughly identical in terms of their look and services, but they can offer those services to customers around the country. Independents’ services usually are limited to one or a handful of locations in a single geographic area, but they have more freedom in terms of their mix of products and services.


April 25, 2011

Navarro Discount Pharmacy, the largest 
Hispanic-owned pharmacy retailer in the United States is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. And it is on an aggressive growth track as it enhances its service offerings and looks to open as many as 21 new stores over the next three years.


April 25, 2011

Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy is targeting three new store openings in 2011 and between three and six new stores each year through 2015. It’s a pace that would put the company at approximately 44 locations in time for the chain’s 15th anniversary, Mark Panzer, Pharmaca president and CEO, recently told Drug Store News. 


April 25, 2011

Fred’s last year migrated its more than 300 pharmacies to a more convenient front-of-store position in an effort to boost pharmacy revenue — and it worked. Fred’s 2010 pharmacy sales growth of 4.8% outpaced the discounter’s overall sales growth of 3% for the year. At the time Fred’s began executing against the pharmacy makeover, the company reported that test stores featuring front-of-store pharmacies enjoyed 20% higher sales per square foot as compared with the company’s average.


April 25, 2011

85% — that’s more or less the combined market share for the companies that make up the 2011 DSN PoweRx50, approximately $185 billion of the total $218 billion retail pharmacy industry. Numbering almost 50,000 stores among them, or more than 8-of-10 of all the pharmacies in the United States — BAM! — the DSN PoweRx50 indisputably reflects the true titans of the retail pharmacy industry.


April 25, 2011

A weak job market and enduring housing challenges in Florida weren’t enough to derail the onward march of Publix last year as the state’s leading supermarket chain expanded its total store count, grew same-store sales and ended the year with record results. 


April 25, 2011

Rite Aid recently has put into play a number of forward-looking initiatives to help improve operations, particularly across pharmacy. The Pennsylvania-based retailer last month announced its test market of six new Wellness store prototypes, and after successfully testing a 15-minute prescription guarantee in three states, Rite Aid expanded that guarantee to all states except New York. 


April 25, 2011

Like most retailers in California, combo-store pioneer Raley’s Supermarkets has been in a slow growth mode since the recession began in 2008. “We still have 105 pharmacies, so not a lot has changed in the past few years,” said John Segale, a spokesman for the Sacramento-based chain.


April 25, 2011

In retailing, it’s a given that a long-term, severe recession will cut through the ranks of food, drug and general merchandise retailers like a scythe through wheat, pushing weaker players out of the market as consumer spending dries up and Darwinian realities winnow the field. But it’s also true that the strongest merchants can emerge not only intact, but also with even brighter prospects if they innovate, invest and retain the loyalty of their customers.


April 25, 2011

While the economic downturn battered retailers across all channels, new pharmacy services and a new state-of-the-art pharmacy system has helped regional player Kinney Drugs weather the storm.


April 25, 2011

After being hemmed in by recession, cash flow problems and costs, a venerable lion of West Coast food and drug retailing is roaring again. 


April 25, 2011

Growing the health-and-wellness business remains a top priority for Sam’s Club as the warehouse club operator has identified those key categories as areas where it can demonstrate value, drive member loyalty and gain market share.


Sam’s has high expectations for health and wellness, along with food and consumables, as it looks to deliver on its brand promise of “savings made simple” and maintain the same-store sales momentum experienced throughout 2010 that culminated with a 2.7% gain in the fourth quarter.


April 25, 2011

Armed with the positioning line, “It’s Time To Get Better,” Sav-Mor Drug Stores continues to emphasize the big difference between its network of franchised locations and the corporate mentality of the chain operations.


To that end, its most recent radio and television campaign positioned the pharmacies against the large national chains. The customer-
service-focused campaign established the Sav-Mor pharmacist as “your personal pharmacist” along with the idea that “nobody cares more for the customer than the owner.”