NEW YORK — Community pharmacies can congratulate themselves on sustaining a high level of customer satisfaction with pharmacists and pharmacy staff, according to the Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmacy Satisfaction Pulse Survey. Looking ahead, though, the challenge for the industry will be to maintain and improve that performance when millions of Americans will gain health coverage next
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS/pharmacy has brought back its program that allows shoppers to double their quarterly ExtraBucks rewards. “ExtraCare members are always looking for more savings and rewards,” senior vice president and chief marketing officer Rob Price says about the program that runs until mid-December as part of CVS’ 50th anniversary celebration. “It’s a great
NEW YORK — Walmart is seeing strong results from its smaller formats and is accelerating its rollout of Neighborhood Markets. It is the Walmart Express, however, that is emerging as a formidable rival to both drug stores and dollar stores. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference recently, Walmart U.S president and chief executive
CINCINNATI — W. Rodney McMullen will succeed David Dillon as chief executive officer of Kroger Co., one of North America’s biggest pharmacy operators, on January 1. McMullen, 53, is currently president and chief operating officer of Kroger, which has about 1,950 pharmacies and generated prescription sales of more than $8 billion in its last fiscal
SEATTLE — This flu season, Bartell Drugs is giving the communities it serves a variety of options to get immunized. The Puget Sound-area drug chain is offering flu vaccinations at its stores and through flu clinics serving area businesses and retirement communities. Flu vaccines are available on a walk-in basis at all of its 61
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Against the backdrop of the shifting health insurance landscape, Walgreen Co. is covering employees through a private exchange. The chain is sponsoring coverage for more than 160,000 employees next year through its proprietary “Live Well Benefits Store,” a marketplace outsourced through Aon Hewitt Corporate Health Exchange. The program provides more coverage choices
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — A new approach to classifying patients by their long-term medication adherence behavior may increase the accuracy of compliance studies. In a study published in the September issue of Medical Care, researchers at CVS Caremark Corp. and Brigham and Women’s Hospital followed more than 264,000 statin users over a 15-month period and created
TORONTO — Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) president and chief executive officer Domenic Pilla and Canadian health minister Rona Ambrose kicked off the drug chain’s arthritis screening program earlier this month with an event at a store here. SDM says that the program, which will see more than 1,200 of the company’s pharmacists provide arthritis screening
NEW YORK — Duane Reade has become the most followed mass market retailer on the social media network Twitter, topping the 1 million-follower mark earlier this month. “This social milestone is all about our customers and represents the ability and focus we have to seamlessly reach them whenever and wherever they are with useful content
ARLINGTON, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has bolstered its government affairs and public policy department, hiring Christopher Smith as director of federal public policy. Smith, who was formerly director of policy and regulatory affairs for the National Community Pharmacists Association and a one-time law professor, will provide policy guidance on pharmacy
It is becoming increasingly difficult not to think of Rite Aid as one of the chain drug industry’s trendsetters. Truth is, America’s third-largest drug chain is unveiling innovative programs, bold initiatives and dramatic new directions at a furious pace, outdistancing its two larger rivals in terms of creativity, significance and drama. Most recently, earlier this
Kerr Drug’s decision to sell its retail and specialty pharmacy businesses is another milestone on the road to consolidation that community pharmacy has been on for more than two decades. In one sense, the sale of Kerr, a company that demonstrated that a regional chain can be an important innovator in pharmacy care, to Walgreen
The retail consumer shift toward wellness is well under way. Hamacher Resource Group and several leading trade associations spotted this emerging trend years ago and changed the term “health and beauty care” (HBC) to “health, beauty, and wellness” (HBW) in everything they produced. These days, the wellness industry is booming, and the term HBW is
