FMI attendees connect the dots between food, Rx

ORLANDO, Fla. —Connecting the dots between the pharmacist and every other part of the store remains the proverbial Holy Grail of supermarket pharmacy retailing, holding as much promise and proving quite elusive for some chains, despite the best intentions. It was in this spirit that several hundred retail pharmacy executives and the supplier partners that do business with them, gathered here last month for FMI’s annual Supermarket Pharmacy Conference, which, for the first time this year, was co-located with the GMDC Health Beauty Wellness Marketing Conference right down the hall.

In the educational sessions, much attention was paid to the recession, and how the down-spiraling economy had caused seismic shifts in consumer purchasing behavior. But not all of this has been bad news for supermarkets.

As IMS Health VP industry relations Doug Long noted in a discussion of current supermarket pharmacy trends, the industry has faced a “triple trade down” over the past 18 months or so. Stage 1 was the shift from dining out in restaurants to shopping the grocery store more. He described Stage 2 as the shift in the purchasing mix, including more private label and less national brands, more coupons, more frozen and less fresh—more of the basics. Stage 3 has been the shift in channels, with consumers shopping more at supercenters and club stores.

Another common theme was the need to re-train consumers to stop thinking about healthy eating as expensive—an area of particular opportunity for supermarket pharmacy retailers, who could leverage the expertise of the pharmacist to reinforce the importance of healthy eating and its relationship to whatever condition they may be treating, and then using the rest of the store to deliver a message of value.

But there is need for greater coordination of effort between the pharmacy and the other parts of the store, as was discussed extensively in a panel discussion moderated by FMI VP pharmacy services Cathy Polley and which included, Don Clark, VP pharmacy operations at K-VA-T Food Stores; Dave Jones, VP industry initiatives at Kellogg USA; Dave Nazaruk, SVP business development at Staywell Custom Communications; Cecil Russell, VP strategic development at SaveMart; and Jay Parsons, president of Catalina Health Resource. One area of note: the seeming disconnect between the center-store objectives and the health-and-wellness initiatives that are tying together pharmacy with other areas of the store, like the produce aisle. For many stores, big promotions on such items as sugary cereals may drive foot traffic, but is that messaging at odds with the whole health platform that may be driving decisions in the rest of the store?