In this Issue


The new-look Duane Reade stores feature a special Papyrus section in the greeting card aisle. Papyrus — known for its posh collection of greeting cards, gift wrap, stationery and other unique gift products — certainly has lent an air of distinction to the department with its upscale fixtures and sleek design.


Cards for all occasions, including birthdays, anniversaries and weddings, are merchandised attractively in the more than 8 ft. of space devoted to the section.

Looking more like a shelf within Bath & Body Works than one you’d find in retail pharmacy is the Essence of Beauty endcap spotted within one CVS/pharmacy in New York. Essence of Beauty is available exclusively at CVS/pharmacy and online at CVS.com.


Action Alley — branded feature displays and four-sided fixtures in the main aisles — marked its return to all Walmart stores this past holiday season, and signified Walmart’s return to promotional intensity.



“Our goal here is to improve health care for Canadians,” Katz Group Canada CEO Andy Giancamilli told Drug Store News about the company’s new Rexall Healthy Living Pharmacy concept it opened in six of its stores across Canada in 2010. The concept, which borrows some of the design innovation and cache usually associated with the beauty category to better engage customers around health and wellness, includes more than 200 health information touch points.


Customers are seeing purple again — reminiscent of another switch that took advantage of the eye-catching color purple. Sanofi-Aventis through its Chattem division in March launched Allegra, the last of the second-generation antihistamines. And purple-powered displays, like this in a Walmart in Lancaster, Pa., dotted the retail pharmacy landscape.


Before Walgreens bought out Duane Reade, the intersection of Avenue J and East 15th Street in Brooklyn was home to a Walgreens and a Duane Reade store. Shortly after the purchase, Walgreens shut down the Duane Reade store, an older store that had a less visible location under elevated railway tracks. Now, independent pharmacies along Avenue J are trying to attract the business of former Duane Reade customers.


The time is now to move any breast-feeding products from the floor of the baby care aisle to eye level — as Walgreens has done here — because mom’s interest in the category received two big boosts earlier this year.


Call it “the attack of the coupon-crazed shelf sweepers.” It’s the most aggressive form of bargain hunting by consumers willing to spend hours searching out coupon deals, to stock up with enough product to last their families for a year and to turn their homes into veritable warehouses.