In this Issue

Drug Store News spoke with Adam Holyk, Walgreens divisional VP loyalty and consumer insights, about the newly created consumer insights team focused on enhancing Walgreens’ engagement with its patients and customers, and how it will help complement Walgreens’ marketing efforts.


DSN: What is the overall vision for the insights team?


For niche brands, getting a foot in the door of mass market retail is no easy feat, and the stakes remain high as retailers have, in recent years, trimmed SKU counts and grown increasingly risk-adverse.

It’s been more than 200 years since the first successful test of a vaccine against smallpox, and since then, vaccines have become one of the most important means of preventing and eradicating infectious diseases, ranging from minor ailments like the flu to devastating ones like polio.


Tracking all of the latest trends within beauty can be about as simple as herding cats, but there undoubtedly are some niches within beauty that are making waves at food, drug and mass.


It is no secret that nail color is hot — red hot. Yet, nestled within the nail color segment is another rising star for the mass market. Enter at-home gel polish. Gel manicures are one of the more popular salon services in the professional market, and now beauty mavens can create the look at home — for a fraction of the price.


At first blush, there appears to be nothing special about Dollar General’s first Southern California store in the suburb of Montclair. It occupies about 7,500 sq. ft. of space in an aging strip center, and a small banner hung on the exterior beckons to passing motorists and pedestrians, “Now Open.” Inside, more signs explain the bare-bones merchandising of familiar brands to shoppers unfamiliar with the Dollar General value proposition.

I am the 99%. And thank God for that. But it’s not what you think. This isn’t about radical politics and class warfare. I’m not looking to tax the 1%. I just want them to take better care of themselves. And I’m definitely not the only one. More and more, payers, insurers and big government are all looking at ways to get this group to live a little healthier. 


Medication nonadherence costs the U.S. healthcare system about $290 billion per year, according to New England Healthcare Institute. That big and scary number — the kind whose sheer enormity can make one’s eyes glaze over — is now even bigger.


Appropriately promoting niche brands within the intimacy health space can be a little trickier than the average consumer packaged goods product. And social media isn’t necessarily the ideal platform — an adult may not be as comfortable “liking” an intimacy enhancement product on Facebook to show their brand affinity, for example.