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chain drug industry

Another typical year in retailing unfolds

Another typical year in retailing unfolds

The year 2016 is more than half over — and the news concerning the chain drug store community has hardly made a ripple. The Walgreens acquisition of Rite Aid remains a work in progress, though all parties hoped it would have been completed by now. The NACDS Total Store Expo event is unfolding without many

For chain drug stores, Rx still the anchor

For chain drug stores, Rx still the anchor

Chain drug store operators are unique among mass market retailers in many ways, none more dramatic than the separation of the pharmacy and front-end businesses. In fact, they are actually two separate businesses, neither overly dependent on the other for success. So it is that the success in pharmacy of a retailer like Walgreens Boots

Chain drug industry in period of transition

Chain drug industry in period of transition

One-third of the way into the new year, the chain drug store industry is hardly setting any worlds on fire. Business is good, but noteworthy only in the fact that it’s not better. America’s chain drug industry has significantly dialed down the pace of mergers and acquisitions that had characterized it over the past two

CDMA still invaluable to small retailers

CDMA still invaluable to small retailers

This year, Chain Drug Marketing Association (CDMA) marks its 90th anniversary. To translate, the organization was begun in 1926. The date was three years prior to the Great Depression and 13 years before the outbreak of World War II. Flying was a sometime thing, and air travel, when it was deemed an efficient and safe

More M&As expected to shake up retail Rx

More M&As expected to shake up retail Rx

NEW YORK — As much as the chain drug industry has consolidated, there is room for more mergers and acquisitions. That’s evident from the M&A speculation swirling about the sector in the U.S. and Canada, as well as recent activity. Lending credibility to the speculation is none other than Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) chief executive

Industry leaders can still learn from Robinson

Industry leaders can still learn from Robinson

The ranks of the founding families, the leaders who collectively framed and built the chain drug store business in America, are thinning at an alarming rate. Sad as this development is, sadder still is the reality that very few among the current crop of chain drug industry leaders remember who they were or what they

CDMA aims ‘to be the front-end source’

CDMA aims ‘to be the front-end source’

NOVI, Mich. — The Chain Drug Marketing Association (CDMA) has not just withstood the consolidation of the chain drug industry. It has grown in spite of it. CDMA has broadened its membership with grocery stores and wholesalers, as well as convenience store chains, notes president Jim Devine. “We’re going beyond the drug channel,” he says.

NACDS: Total Store Expo exhibit space sold out

NACDS: Total Store Expo exhibit space sold out

ARLINGTON, Va. — Exhibit space for the 2015 NACDS Total Store Expo has sold out, a month before the annual chain drug industry event kicks off in Denver. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores said Friday that although the exhibit floor space is filled, online registration is still open for retailers and suppliers that

Today’s merchandising lacks creative spark

A small group of chain drug industry veterans met recently in Cleveland to discuss the lamentable state of innovative and creative merchandising in chain drug retailing these days. The group, consisting of some dozen retailers, suppliers and association executives, concluded that a variety of factors — most notably industry consolidation and the tendency among retailers

Already, 2015 is shaping up as an eventful year

The new year is just over a month old and already the chain drug industry has seen its fair share of noteworthy events. Walgreens Boots Alliance had a coming out party, opening trading at NASDAQ and unveiling its new corporate logo; Brian Unmacht became the first person outside the Bartell family to serve as president

2015 Retail Forecast: Pharmacy executives are bullish

NEW YORK — As 2015 gets under way, chain drug retailers in the United States and Canada are seeking ways to get the most out of pharmacy’s continued movement away from a dispensing orientation toward a service model focused on improved ­health outcomes. Chain drug industry executives say pharmacies are positioned to become integral health

A look at the events that shaped 2014

Which events were most significant for chain drug retailing in 2014? As usual, that is not an easy question to answer. In many ways, 2014 was a remarkable year for the chain drug industry, one in which the character of the business was changed, probably irrevocably. The industry assumed a global character for perhaps the

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