In this Issue

Nothing shows a retailer that its revitalization efforts are working quite like a thumbs-up from customers. For Winn-Dixie Stores, that vote of confidence came in mid-February, when its pharmacy business was among 40 U.S. companies honored as 2011 “customer service champions” by J.D. Power and Associates.

Regional operator Giant Eagle always has pushed the envelope with new store concepts, as evidenced by its high-end Market District grocery brand and Giant Eagle Express, a convenience store/gas station replete with a wide offering of food items and a full-service, drive-through pharmacy.

Harris Teeter describes itself as “not just a grocery store,” but also “a wellness center.” The Matthews, N.C.-based supermarket retailer has taken big steps to provide a broader-than-usual menu of services that blend its pharmacy assets with its growing reach as a source of nutritional expertise.

The nation’s largest supermarket chain wants a bigger share of the U.S. pharmacy and wellness market. To get it, Kroger is brandishing a growing arsenal of health and preventive services, and burnishing its image for value and convenience at the prescription counter.

Over the past seven years, Safeway has demonstrated a list of accomplishments aimed at healthier living, including launching its O Organics line of USDA certified-organic foods, removing added trans-fats from all of its private-label products and launching Eating Right for Kids, a line that contains no high fructose corn syrup. Today, the effort shows little signs of slowing as the chain kicked off 2011 with two new initiatives: SimpleNutrition and Open Nature.

Weis Markets streamlined its internal connection between wellness and pharmacy earlier this year with an organizational restructuring that folded the Weis Lifestyle Initiatives department, led by registered dietitian Karen Buch, into the grocer’s pharmacy division. It is the first official move by a supermarket retailer to literally draw a direct line between food and pharmacy.

One supermarket operator is literally driving customers to its pharmacies.

Customers at Royal Ahold’s Giant-Landover stores can earn one Gas Rewards point for every dollar spent on purchases in Giant pharmacies in Maryland, most of Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C. With the program, for example, a $20 pharmaceutical co-pay earns 20 points and a $50 pharmacy purchase earns 50 points. For every 100 Gas Rewards points earned, shoppers save 10 cents off every gallon of gas bought at Giant and participating Shell gas stations.

One chain that exemplifies experimentation and innovation in health-and-wellness programs is Harmons, which operates 13 stores in the Salt Lake City area.

In 1999, the family-owned company unveiled Healthy Living Solutions. Originally a store-within-a-store concept, the department featured natural and organic products, with the pharmacy manager in charge of the department.