Steve Anderson

The time has come, if perhaps a bit prematurely, to raise a glass to the leadership and staffers at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

These have been especially difficult days for NACDS. In the midst of the most serious pandemic in our nation’s history, the chain drug association was forced by circumstances beyond its control to decide whether to convene its Annual Meeting, the financial and legislative centerpiece of its year. Its ultimate decision, regardless of the irrefutable nature of the evolving coronavirus, would hardly endear it to its many members, both retailer and ­supplier.

For the uninitiated, and those few who need another reminder, the Annual Meeting is the hub around which our industry turns. For retailers, it is the opportunity to exchange views and opinions with their competitors, an opportunity that doesn’t often arise in today’s hypercompetitive environment. Additionally, it offers retailers the chance to meet with their supplier colleagues on a neutral court, a court that often becomes the venue for new ideas, new programs and the launch of new products.

Suppliers have as much at stake. Retailing is what keeps them in business, and the chain drug retailing community has been, since the beginning of retail time, the prize at the end of the puzzle. Nothing succeeds for suppliers as gratifyingly as the endorsement, in the form of a commitment, from a retailer with the power and reputation of a Walgreens, a CVS, a Rite Aid or a … well, the list is ­endless.

In the end, of course, NACDS had no choice. Thus came the painful announcement out of Alexandria, Va., that the 2020 Annual Meeting was canceled.

For Steve Anderson, Jim Whitman and the experienced staff that has participated in, even choreographed, numerous Annual Meetings, the days that followed that announcement were marked by anguish, sadness and too many apologies where no apologies were called for or warranted.

For their part, chain drug retailer and suppliers responded to the cancellation as best they could. They understood, appreciated the NACDS position, and commiserated … to a point. Many — perhaps too many — thought only about themselves and the lost opportunities, the expenses in time, energy and money, that will never fully be recouped.

Understandable? Perhaps. But, given the current environment, hardly justified.

Even now, NACDS is scrambling to resuscitate the rest of the year, in the hope that the chain drug community will forgive, forget and move on to capitalize on the new opportunities that will surely come their way as America slowly recovers from this crippling blow to our economy, our future and our hopes.

The point here is that this is no time for the chain drug industry to narrowly, and incorrectly, focus on how the National Association of Chain Drug Stores has disappointed it. Rather, it is a time — perhaps the most opportune time in the chain drug industry’s history — to applaud NACDS for having the courage to take a position when no viable position existed. If NACDS were a lesser organization, or a less perspicacious one, we would have had to ask ourselves the inevitable questions before packing our bags and heading out west: Who will show up? Who won’t? How long will they stay? When will they leave? Is this, after all, the best possible time to do business, to forget the crisis that lingers outside our doors or around the corner? Would it have been smarter to cancel the meeting while canceling it was still an option?

The bottom line here is still this: Faced with a quandary few institutions are ever called on to face, NACDS made the correct decision. Not correct for all, but certainly for most. And most important, the right decision for the chain drug industry.

So the time has come, if a bit prematurely, to both congratulate NACDS and thank the association, during this time of unprecedented trauma for our country and our world, for rising to an impossible occasion and making tomorrow not only possible, but necessary.