Bob Kwait

As I evaluate the Annual Meeting of late April, I must first compliment the National Association of Chain Drug Stores for an outstanding job of organizing a successful conference. It was an exceptional meeting that came together with participation from both new and current members. It’s extremely difficult to plan a meeting of this scale, and especially more so in these trying times. NACDS did a remarkable job in the execution, and I applaud The Breakers hotel for their outstanding service as well. After missing the last two years due to the pandemic, it’s the beginning of a new era.

As I look back on the week and the issues that stand out to me, I must keep in mind all of the wonderful and productive meetings that were held. I extend my compliments to those who have never before attended and taken part in all that the meeting offers. Like anything else, there are always issues. Now, based on the current times, it’s not surprising. It’s important to point out that as I went through the week of evaluation, I was very deeply concerned that three key presidents of major drug chains did not attend. This was brought up to me by several attendees as well. The Annual Meeting is unlike any other meeting. This is a meeting to come together and work together, and it’s important for both retailers and associates to attend. It was disappointing that these presidents did not show up to add credence to the meeting.

It’s important to point out the significance of independent pharmacy today. The role of the independent pharmacy is moving back to 20 to 30 years ago when the pharmacist/owner was a critical part of the image and added credibility to the pharmacy nationally. The role of the independent pharmacy has grown dramatically through the pandemic. I believe their role going forward will expand and grow significantly. It’s been customary through the years that the pharmacist play a significant role in health care. This allows the consumer to become familiar with the pharmacist and provides an opportunity for the consumer and pharmacist to develop a relationship over time. In most of the chains that role has significantly decreased because of turnover. Therefore the independent pharmacy, the owner, acts as a critical provider for health care to the consumer. This has been lost in many ways, as there is no consistency in the chain stores in relying on the pharmacy personnel.

It’s also important to mention how beauty plays an integral part of wellness and good health. The opportunity to grow the beauty business needs to be explored and expanded, which has not been done for many years. I feel that department stores have slowly given up on beauty and appear to have smaller beauty departments. This presents a great opportunity for the pharmacy stores to expand their beauty departments. Now is the time for retailers to take the new beauty lines and present these items in a dramatic fashion and not just put them on a shelf. Create excitement again in the beauty category.

As the consumer ages, there is greater need for antiaging products and more age specific cosmetics to help these customers look and feel their best. This well-being becomes an important part of aging. This also leaves an opportunity for the drug stores to go back to setting up beauty departments within the store.

The other issue that came up from speaking with people was the concern about third-party payers and how they control the costs and lower the payments to the retailer on prescriptions, making it difficult for pharmacies to make money in this day and age. Third-party payers are an issue for the industry as a whole and for NACDS. This seems to have turned into a critical issue that needs to be dealt with. We cannot afford to lose pharmacies.

The next issue is one that I’ve spoken of before concerning planograms. Planograms are very generic. Today, a planogram needs to be more disease specific. Many retailers are moving in that direction — i.e., sleep problem section, back pain section — but this needs to be expanded and moving forward more quickly. With so many changes in nutrition, the vitamin section needs to be expanded. Health and wellness came more to the forefront during the pandemic, and consumers need to be able to locate the products they are searching for. There has been a lot of work done in this area, and the retailer needs to have the vision to present the right product for the wellness or the illness the consumer is looking for. Consumers need to be able to easily locate the product specific to their need. This affects front-end sales.

Time is of the essence. There are many problems that need to be resolved. I have mentioned a few that I believe are important. I feel that we are heading in the right direction, and I’m excited to see how we grow from here.

Bob Kwait is chairman of Kwait & Associates/Bob Kwait Consulting Group.