Alan Levin

The decade of the ’60s brought us many things — the New Frontier, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and the children of the “Greatest Generation.” Each of these helped shape the U.S. and the world, leading to a new way of shopping. From the ’60s came the birth of self-service shopping. The supermarket replaced the grocery store. The mass merchant replaced the department store, and the chain pharmacy replaced the independent drug store. Once these enterprises came on the scene shopping would never be the same again.

Each of these retail concepts shared a common thread — they were all led by entrepreneurs who grew up as merchants in their respective industries, entrepreneurs who had a sense of what people wanted in their shopping experience. This knowledge, coupled with the end of fair trade laws and the introduction of discounting led these merchants in new directions — and to new levels of success. This article will center on the chain drug sector, an area that I have some familiarity with.

Up until the ’60s, the drug stores of America were primarily pharmacies. The customer would walk to the counter and ask for what they wanted and a clerk would retrieve the product. On those occasions when the customer needed professional services, “Doc Jones,” the pharmacist, would come out, listen and make a recommendation. The pharmacist, in many cases, was the next best thing to a physician and far more accessible. While there was a comfort level in the pharmacy experience, it did not lend itself to shopping, and the requirement of selling at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price left all stores pretty much the same. That changed with the introduction of discounting in the ’60s and the advent of chain drug stores.

No longer did the customer have to wait to be waited on. Shoppers were free to stroll the aisles of these new-concept stores and save money while doing so. They experienced end-caps and floor displays stacked high with inviting products, shelf talkers, signage and low prices. They were bombarded with weekly advertisements, circulars and promotions. The shopping public had never experienced this and ate it up.

So began a love affair with chain pharmacy that has endured for more than 60 years. The men and women who ran these chains were consummate merchants who grew up with degrees in merchandising from years of working in the retail industry. They understood the consumer, and this knowledge lead to success in this evolving industry.

But today the role of merchants is changing, and the chains that were led by these titans of marketing are now headed by MBAs, lawyers and IT people — virtually everything but merchants. The fact that things are changing is fine, but the industry shouldn’t ignore and forget the roots of its success. These new leaders, while standouts in their respective fields, have virtually no experience in drug store retailing. This is a sad statement on where our industry is today. Yes, leadership evolves and changes, but those who forget their strengths will probably lose their way. Gone will be the great days of drug store retailing, and we will eventually revert back to the days where they were mere pharmacies with an uninviting shopping experience, awaiting the next revolution in retail.

I urge the current leaders of this industry not to let this happen. Use those of us who lived through the glory days of chain drug stores to show you what made our stores the best of retailing. We were not always right, but our success with consumers speaks for itself. Failure to do so may very well lead chain drug to a path of extinction.

Alan Levin, former president and chief executive officer of Happy Harry’s and former secretary of economic development for the State of Delaware, is a senior advisor at SoDel Concepts. He can be contacted at [email protected].