In this Issue

The other day, I saw a young man in baggy jeans — that ridiculously enormous cut from the late 90s/early 2000s that seemed to fit every waist size from 28 inches to 4.5 ft., and gave every person the illusion of being their own “after” picture in one of those bad billboard weight loss ads. It was just another reminder that either, for a lack of creativity or extremely bad taste, every bad idea that ever existed eventually will be recycled.

Potential trumps experience, lessons from London and why mistakes are really investments in success — Walgreens’ president of pharmacy and retail ops tees it up with DSN.

One of the biggest trends in food and beverage in the past several years has been in better-for-you offerings — something that’s expected to continue to influence new products as consumers remain focused on what’s in their favorite snacks and beverages. When IRI published its 2017 New Product Pacesetters report in early April, the firm noted that one of the drivers of category growth has been healthier innovation. Of IRI’s 100 New Product Pacesetters in the food and beverage category, 47 of them featured healthier-for-you-attributes.

The skin care/facial category saw a 2% growth in sales for the last 12 months compared with the previous year, driven by the cleansers segment, which was up 9% in the food and drug channels. Moisturizers saw 7% and 9% growth in drug and food, respectively. The anti-aging segment decreased 2% in drug and 4% in food sales year over year (Figure 1).

Editor’s Note: The Drug Store News Industry Issues Summit gathered a record crowd in December at the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan to discuss the most important issues facing the industry today. Three roundtable discussions took place at the event, one regarding chronic care (which appeared in the February issue of DSN), the front-end panel (which appeared in the March issue of DSN), and this health, wellness and technology panel.

While Rite Aid and Walgreens Boots Alliance continue to work toward a merger of their two operations in the coming year, 2016 marked several milestones for Rite Aid. In the past year, the company has converted almost half of its store base to the highly successful Wellness store format.

With 981,000 prescriptions dispensed in 2016, independent specialty pharmacy operator Diplomat Pharmacy’s 8% script growth over 2015 was the result of the company’s continued efforts to move into and expand its existing presence in several markets — in part through strategic acquisitions of independent companies demonstrating best practices. Driven by its oncology and infusion divisions, the company’s growth brings with it more access to specialty drugs that have limited distribution.