The concept cars unveiled at major auto shows always seem a bit “out there.” But by making a practice of radically rethinking their products, global car makers have learned to unleash their creativity and position themselves for the future. Are chain drug stores doing the same? How much time and money does the industry
NEW YORK — Drug chains are leveraging their strengths of accessibility and convenience as they extend their core prescription drug business further into the health care realm and diversify their front-end mix. Industry observers say many of the people newly insured under the Affordable Care Act will turn to chain drug stores for their scripts
NEW YORK — In the wake of Target Corp.’s decision to join Walmart in raising its minimum pay rate for hourly workers, other retailers, including chain drug stores, may face pressure to do the same. The United Food and Commercial Workers International union reportedly plans to step up its efforts to organize workers at Walgreens
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
NEW YORK — A late shopping rush on the weekend before Christmas helped put some twinkle in holiday retail sales, but the final results for the season seemed to fall short of the optimistic projections retailers had set back in early November. Drug chains, however, may have fared slightly better during the holidays than the
Consumer-centricity in retailing is often cloaked in words about putting the consumer at the center of our business, but what will happen when consumers are the focal point of their own business? The use of social media changes the dynamic and puts consumers at the core of their own brand. Bad customer experiences, often the
The Wild West never lacked for traveling salesmen pushing the newest elixir or snake oil to solve all your medical maladies. Fever? Take this! Stomach pains? Here’s the cure! As the health and medical fields matured, however, the playing field was leveled as trusted information became available through doctors, textbooks and other channels. The snake
As if the obvious needed to be stated, the period of slow, evolutionary change in the retailing environment for drug, food and convenience items is long over. The arrival of pure-play e-commerce companies to food, drug and beauty retailing marked the end of evolutionary and the beginning of truly explosive revolutionary change. The battlefield is
