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Inside This Issue - News
Chong Bang, Walgreen Co.’s general merchandise manager for photo and front-end services and the latest executive to oversee implementation of the company’s Customer-Centric Retailing (CCR) initiative, plans to leave the company later this month. Senators have dug in for a prolonged floor fight on health care reform, even after voting on their first two amendments. Pharmacy operators and drug wholesalers say they fear that a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) policy could prevent certain medications for chronic conditions from being covered by Medicare Part D. Walgreen Co. continues to shuffle its upper management ranks, bringing in new executives and moving others to new roles. Chain drug retailers posted strong sales gains in November. Overall sales for the trade class advanced 8.3% from results in the prior-year period, while same-store sales increased by 4%. Online retailer drugstore.com inc. reported a strong start to its holiday selling season. The level of flu activity across the nation dropped in November, federal health officials said earlier this month, indicating that the second wave of the swine flu pandemic in the United States has peaked. Three longtime members of Walgreen Co.’s board of directors will step down next month, including Charles R. (Cork) Walgreen III, the grandson of the company’s founder. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has submitted a letter to the Food and Drug Administration expressing its concern that rogue Internet pharmacies are engaging in a pattern of illegal activity. Walgreen Co. has relaunched its web site, adding a variety of healthy living and product resources, expanding the shopping tools and services it offers, and making the site easier to navigate.
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