Industry, check

As retail pharmacy executives prepare to gather in Palm Beach, Fla., for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Annual Meeting, the industry is in a pivotal moment. As one analyst told
our reporter, in some ways, it is deciding what it wants to be when it grows up.

Pharmacies large and small are rethinking how they do business, and there is a lot to think about—from the products they offer to the design and locations of their brick-and-mortar stores, competition from e-commerce giants, PBM reform, a reimbursement payment framework and much more.

In this month’s cover story, our reporter interviewed analysts, pharmacy executives, industry observers and others to get a clear picture of where the industry stands at the moment and where it’s headed. The outlook might be positive.

“With U.S. healthcare costs surging and the dearth of pharmacists continuing, an evolution in convenient, affordable healthcare services is the need of the hour in the U.S.,” Aditya Kaushik, analyst at Coresight Research, said in a recent Market Navigator report on the retail drug store industry. As drugstores increasingly expand the services they offer, they have an opportunity to become “the next generation of primary care providers, treating patients with acute illnesses and chronic conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, and hypertension.”

Our second feature (page 54) takes a look at something that all shoppers in the United States have to face at some point—self checkout kiosks. Billed as a revolution in retail, self checkout is as American as apple pie but not as enjoyable. We wanted to see what consumers really think of self checkout, so we reached out to TruRating, a customer experience and insights company that recently conducted a study of perceptions about self-checkout. Based on verified customer feedback, the study gives an accurate snapshot of why shoppers use self checkout and when.

“There has been a move in more and more retailers to implement self-checkout options to try to increase throughput at the point of payment and also to reduce labor costs and shortages,” said Gareth Johns, chief data officer at TruRating. “The preferences and experiences of customers hasn’t been the main driver for this move and there has been little research into how customers feel about this major shift in their shopping experience.” Hopefully, this study changes that.