Dozen CVS/pharmacy y más stores open in South Florida

NEW YORK — CVS Health has launched a new drug store banner in Florida that’s aimed at Hispanic consumers.

Called CVS/pharmacy y más, the stores cater to Latino shoppers to connect them with their favorite brands, products and services.

The drug chain this month opened 12 CVS/pharmacy y más stores in South Florida, mostly in Miami but also in Hialeah, Kendall, Homestead and Doral. Eleven of the stores are remodels, and one of the Miami locations is a newly built store.

The CVS/pharmacy y más stores have bilingual signage and staff; more than 1,500 Hispanic products; more competitive pricing on hundreds of products; more value- and family-sized products; and a digital services center with an authorized dealer and payment center for metroPCS, bill payments (utilities, phone and cable) and international money transfer services.

Latino brands carried at CVS/pharmacy y más include Café la Llave, Agustin Reyes, Fabuloso, Suavitel, Creolina and Formula 88. The stores also offer appliances popular with Hispanic consumers, such as coffee and espresso makers, pressure cookers, rice cookers and arepa makers. Cafecito, a type of espresso, also will be served at the pharmacies at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily.

Later this summer, the stores will feature an OTC Health Solutions Counter, which will provide customers with a dedicated space for picking up over-the-counter products covered by their health insurance plans.

The launch of CVS/pharmacy y más adds the CVS’ already strong presence in the Latino food and drug market in South Florida. In September, CVS closed its acquisition of Navarro Discount Pharmacy, a Hispanic-owned drug chain with 33 stores in the Miami area. The deal was announced last July.

CVS/pharmacy president Helena Foulkes mentioned the CVS/pharmacy y más concept in an interview earlier this month and said that the Navarro acquisition helped pave the way for the new banner.

“These stores are designed to create an environment where our Hispanic customers feel at home and can receive CVS/pharmacy’s best-in-class pharmacy services, along with personalized products and services to better meet their diverse needs,” Foulkes said. “We have leveraged the expertise and experience of Navarro’s successful history of serving the Hispanic consumer to create CVS/pharmacy y más, and we will continue to apply learnings from Navarro to other markets with dense Hispanic populations.”

For example, the CVS/pharmacy y más stores include a fully staffed Navarro Fragrance Counter, which features a large assortment of designer fragrances priced lower than department stores. The Navarro stores have historically been known for their strong beauty departments.

“The ‘y más’ signifies the availability of more products and services that are important to the Hispanic consumer and an overall shopping environment that is more tailored to the Hispanic consumer, with warmer and more personal customer service,” stated Gabriel Navarro, chief of Hispanic consumer growth at CVS/pharmacy.

CVS/pharmacy y más also offers CVS/pharmacy’s exclusive and national brands, pharmacy services, ExtraCare rewards program, and 100% beauty product guarantee.

To mark the launch of CVS/pharmacy y más, free weekly events are being held at all 12 stores through June 13.

A CVS spokesman said that, at this time, the company has no announcement on additional CVS/pharmacy y más locations. But he added that in the future the concept could be rolled out in other markets with a high concentration of Hispanic consumers.