CVS

NEW YORK — Consumers gravitate toward traditional pharmacies for their everyday health-and-wellness needs, according to the "2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend" survey released Monday. Among retail pharmacy operations, Walgreens enjoyed the greatest brand equity among consumers based on top consumer scores in "familiarity" and "purchase consideration" categories. Overall, Walgreens' brand equity was tabulated at 69.9, CVS/pharmacy came in at 67.4 and Rite Aid 62.5.

CHICAGO — MinuteClinic, which is owned by CVS Caremark, announced on Monday that it has joined a coalition of organizations dedicated to raising diabetes awareness among families on Chicago's South Side.

The coalition is working with Perspectives Charter School Calumet Campus to educate, screen, diagnose and, if needed, provide follow-up care to any student diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS/pharmacy is taking a greater step toward targeting the Hispanic market with the launch of its new Spanish-language website.

Like the English-language site, the Spanish version, located at http://es.cvs.com, enables shoppers to manage their prescription account, get health information, purchase products and access coupons. According to a MediaPost article, Google indicated that the new CVS Spanish website consists of 67,000 pages, most of which are product SKUs.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark announced on Tuesday the release of its 2011 corporate social responsibility report.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — It was a rainy Thursday morning in Woonsocket, R.I., but that didn’t dissuade CVS Caremark stockholders from flocking to the company’s sprawling headquarters to attend its annual meeting of stockholders — an event that proved to be one filled with optimism as president and CEO Larry Merlo provided key highlights of 2011 and discussed how the company is reinventing pharmacy and capitalizing on its “integration sweet spots.”

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — MinuteClinic announced on Thursday the debut of two walk-in medical clinics inside CVS/pharmacy stores located in San Antonio.

The retail clinic operator, which opened its doors in the Lone Star state in 2006, now operates 45 clinics inside select CVS/pharmacy stores in Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio markets. In addition to the two clinics, a third is slated to open later this year.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — More retail websites this year achieved a "threshold for excellence" on customer experience analytics firm ForeSee's annual Top 100 E-Retail Satisfaction Index.

ForeSee reported that 36-out-of-100 online retailers achieved a satisfaction score of 80 or higher, compared with 28-out-of-100 websites that received the distinction last year. Although Amazon.com topped the list with a 2012 satisfaction score of 89 — up three points from 2011 — many other retailers, particularly retail pharmacies and grocery retailers, earned a high score:

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — Two speakers at the American Telemedicine Association’s annual meeting last week had positive words for the convenient care industry and essentially told attendees what Drug Store News has been saying for some time: Retail clinics are poised for significant growth.

(THE NEWS: Retail clinics positioned for dramatic growth. For the full story, click here.)