Content about Wellness store

Rite Aid announced Wednesday that it has converted nearly all its stores in the Buffalo, N.Y., area to the Wellness store format, breaking the news with an event in the nearby village of Williamsville that included president, chairman and CEO John Standley, COO Ken Martindale and fitness expert Denise Austin.

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.

Rite Aid reported a $123.1 million profit for fourth quarter 2013 and $118.1 million for the fiscal year — its first profitable year since 2007 — amid greater generic drug penetration and retention of at least three-quarters of the customers who switched over to the chain during the dispute between Walgreens and pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, among other factors.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid beat analyst expectations in third quarter 2013 as the generic wave and retention of Express Scripts customers helped drive better-than-expected adjusted EBITDA and produced the company's first profitable quarter in five years.

"I am proud that we have achieved this significant milestone by putting our customers first and challenging ourselves to better serve them," Rite Aid president, chairman and CEO John Standley said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts Thursday morning.

By the time it had unveiled the latest evolution of its hot, new Wellness store concept this fall in Lemoyne, Pa., Rite Aid was coming off seven consecutive quarters of Adjusted EBITDA and same-store prescription count growth — the strongest growth period for the company in several years.

An often-heard remark in arguments between people is, “You’re not looking at the big picture.” But it’s often just as important to look not just at the big picture, but all the little parts that constitute it, especially if you’re the head of store operations for a major retail chain.


Ultimately, there’s no “retail pharmacy” without the “pharmacy,” and that’s true of any store that dispenses prescription drugs — whether it’s a small independent drug store, a nationwide chain, a supermarket or a mass merchandiser. But in many respects, Rite Aid is trying to make the “pharmacy” component of that phrase just a little bit bigger.


CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid unveiled what it called its "next generation" Wellness store as the chain reported a decrease in same-store sales Thursday.

The store, in Lemoyne, Pa., is less than a mile from the 4,639-store chain's Camp Hill, Pa., headquarters. A ribbon-cutting Thursday morning marked the store's grand opening.

As part of Rite Aid’s new Wellness store formats, Rite Aid has positioned its Wellness Ambassador in front of the OTC aisles armed with an iPad that has access to vetted health information. “Our Wellness Ambassadors play an important role in the customer experience,” noted Robert Thompson, Rite Aid EVP pharmacy. “They’re there to help patients talk to the pharmacist [for] specific answers to their health questions,” he said. “With us, it’s personal,” Thompson added, referencing Rite Aid’s long-standing maxim.

One of the most visible representations of Rite Aid’s efforts to make a comeback is its Wellness store format. The company first unveiled the format in several test markets in the Northeast last year, gradually expanding it to other states. Today, more than 420 stores have been converted, and the chain hopes to eventually make the format the norm. The company plans to have 780 stores converted by the end of the year.


CAMP HILL, Pa. — Despite running fewer stores, Rite Aid grew its sales and narrowed its losses during the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2012, thanks to a boost in its loyalty card program membership, a longer fiscal year and the continuing dispute between Walgreens and Express Scripts.

When someone says “pharmacy automation and technology,” the image that most likely springs to mind is a pharmacy robot dispensing pills in a bottle or pharmacists managing operations or looking at patients’ medical records and electronic prescriptions with the latest pharmacy software.


But technology increasingly is migrating out from behind the counter as pharmacy retailers wield it not just to make the jobs of pharmacists and pharmacy techs easier, but to enhance the experience of the customer as well.