In this Issue

Drug retailers are doggedly pursuing the pet care category, with Rite Aid fetching its own piece of the $47.7 billion category, according to the 2009-2010 “National Pet Owners Survey” conducted by the American Pet Products Association.


In an interesting twist, and undoubtedly a clear reflection of the blurring lines within beauty, Macy’s has implemented an open-sell concept of niche beauty brands inside select store locations.


By October 2010, Impulse Beauty had made its way into more than 50 Macy’s stores across the country. An additional 50 Macy’s stores are expected to debut the concept in 2011. Impulse Beauty complements the department store’s traditional beauty counters, and enables customers to shop beauty brands on their own and seek help from beauty advisers if needed.


Walgreens not only is the “Way to Well,” it also is the “Way to Stay Well,” as evidenced by this shelf talker in the dietary supplement aisle that contains a 44-page pamphlet titled “Vitamins & Supplements Q&A: Your A to Z Shopping Guide.”


Inside are reasons to take supplements to both improve health and prevent disease. Specific supplement topics include the best supplements to take to help manage healthy blood-glucose levels, as well as bone and joint, cognitive, heart, immune and prenatal health. 


The new Pharmaca stores make a very bold statement about the relationship between pharmacy and prevention. The company unveiled its new store design in Menlo Park, Calif., in November 2010. The 6,800-sq.-ft. store continues Pharmaca’s “integrative pharmacy” model, which emphasizes holistic approaches to health care and features eight licensed practitioners.


Wegmans hosts a bevy of natural solutions (e.g., gluten-free foods, supplements and homeopathic solutions) just outside its produce department, including this refrigerated unit replete with probiotics and flax-seed oil supplements. That places the mass-oriented grocer more in line with the kind of natural wellness position you would expect to find at a Whole Foods or other natural grocer. 


Among the best real estate in a supermarket is the checkout line, where customers usually can find shelves of candy, gum and other small items. But this Hy-Vee store in Albert Lea, Minn., is offering healthy choices to a captive audience, according to published reports. 


Local news reported that 
the Albert Lea 
store has unveiled Hy-Vee’s 
Blue Zones lane, 
which instead of junk food features gran­ola bars, dried and fresh fruit, soy nuts and string cheese. 


Groupings of homeopathic pediatric cough-cold solutions, like those pictured here at a central Pennsylvania CVS, have become more the norm given the safety and efficacy debate around several children’s cough-cold ingredients over the past few years, the spate of recalls and the more recent media-driven concern over accidental overdosing.


DEERFIELD, Ill. — As the nation braces for higher gas prices this summer, Walgreens is exploring alternatives that may have longer-term potential and could serve as a differentiator among green consumers. As of April, Walgreens had announced three markets in which it had opened electric charging stations in its store parking lots. 


Unlike gas stations where consumers can simply pump and go, charging stations can take anywhere from 10 minutes to a half hour, which creates more time to capture more purchases.