RETAIL NEWS

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — For Walmart SVP/GMM Consumables Latriece Watkins, Saturday’s 19th-annual Susan G. Komen Ozark Race for the Cure was something she had to lead.

This year's theme is "Honor a Hero, Be a Hero," and the 2017 race chair immediately thought of her hero.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Hy-Vee recently restructured several of its corporate departments to position it for further growth. The three areas it restructured were IT and Healthmarkets, as well as its restaurant development. Hy-Vee said it plans to add 70 new corporate staff members to its team in the coming weeks.

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).

EDMOND, Okla. — Walmart hit the century mark in terms of training academies

The retailer on Monday celebrated the grand opening of its 100th U.S. training academy at 1225 West I-35 Frontage, Edmond. Walmart training academies were first introduced in 2016 and have expanded to 40 states.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Dosing, labeling and a seemingly endless range of allergy medication options can make picking the right medicine a complicated task for some parents, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at the University of Michigan, released Monday.

Despite privacy concerns, consumer will share data with companies if it saves them money or resolves customer service issues faster.

This was according to a recent study conducted by YouGov on behalf of customer experience company [24]|7, which tapped 1,145 U.S. consumers.

Nearly half (43%) of consumers agreed that they would exchange personal data with companies to save money through personalized promotions, discounts or deals, followed by 39% looking for speedier issue resolution.

CINCINNATI — This April, in honor of Earth Month, Kroger will promote a program involving events and customer engagement to help highlight easy, earth-friendly and sustainable living practices, the grocer announced Friday.  

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.