Walgreens has brought the latest example of its flagship retail pharmacy to life in Chicago, tantalizing its hometown crowd with departments most shoppers wouldn't normally associate with a pharmacy — fully stocked sushi bar, quick-and-fresh deli offerings, a self-serve yogurt bar adjacent to a juice bar that along with the healthy-for-you selection of juices offers the "double-rich chocolate malted milk" that the retailer invented in 1922.

On Sunday, Jan. 1, Walgreens' contract with Express Scripts expired, and millions of Walgreens customers covered by ESI were forced to either move their pharmacy business to another pharmacy in the Express Script network or come up with some other way to stick with Walgreens. DSN editor Rob Eder on Tuesday interviewed Walgreens president and CEO Greg Wasson on what the company is doing to hold on to those customers and to appeal to payers, and what the potential ESI-Medco deal could mean.

Drug Store News kicked off Friday morning with a firsthand look at the transformed Duane Reade store nestled in the vibrant neighborhood of 52nd and Broadway.

To better reflect the needs of the neighborhood, which is brimming largely with tourists and business travelers, Duane Reade transformed the former 3,100-sq.-ft. Duane Reade Express store into an impressive 20,000- sq.-ft. health, beauty and daily living destination.

DSN caught up with ECRM president Mitch Bowlus to find out what was in store for the company’s highly successful series of Efficient Program Planning Session meetings and the constantly evolving MarketGate technology that helps drive them.

DSN spoke with Hamacher president Dawn Vogelsang about its new digital product library featuring as many as 6,000 home health care items, as well as the opportunities in home health care today.

In “Star Trek,” the Starship Enterprise never featured an onboard retail pharmacy. But if it did, it might look something like eRxCity, which opened in May on the corner of Canal and Mott sts. in New York’s Chinatown, founded by sisters Yvonne Tsang and Priscilla Cheung (née Tsang).

For Rite Aid, 50 is the magic number this year.

In September, the drug chain marked its 50 years in business with a six-month campaign to promote its focus on health and wellness, kicking off a nationwide tour near its Camp Hill, Pa., headquarters. From there, the tour visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and other cities.

In late June, DSN editor Rob Eder traveled to Las Vegas for McKesson ideaShare 2012. DSN.TV caught up on the show floor with Health Mart VP operations Chuck Wilson to recap the big highlights from this year’s conference, including the launch of a new direct-to-patient mobile application called ScriptAlert, the updated new look for Health Mart and what’s next for its 3,000-plus franchise group, an exciting new strategic plan it calls “Health Mart 2.0.”

Named Pharmacy of the Year with the Overall Excellence Award was Gateway Pharmacy South in Bismarck, N.D., which has won the passionate loyalty of local consumers with a highly personalized brand of patient care and services like compounding and clinical care.

Coming off a multi-year overhaul of its merchandising strategy and discount store format, Family Dollar is making good on its commitment to be “a compelling place to shop for our customers.” The big discount chain — which now numbers more than 7,200 stores in 45 states — is driving new business with an expanded and vastly more appealing product presentation, new and more attractive fixtures and in-line sets, broad and deep merchandise mix and improved department adjacencies.

An aisle of OTC products in a California 99 Cents Only Stores location complements departments with party products, fresh produce, deli and frozen foods, as well as other general merchandise. The deep-discount retailer currently has 298 stores, primarily in California but with some locations in Texas, Arizona and Nevada.

Everybody talks about “Health & Wellness," but what do those words actually mean to the consumer? To make sure that retailer and supplier initiatives align with consumers’ definitions of these concepts, the DSN.TV cameras took to the streets for a series of man-on-the street interviews.