Special Reports Archive

ShopRite is striving to help its shoppers shop right by focusing on health and wellness and added convenience. To help customers live healthier lives, the grocer has, at select locations, an on-site registered dietitian. 


Wakefern implemented the retail dietitian program in 2006, and today there are 20 retail dietitians working in 23 ShopRite locations.


The way chief executive R. David Yost sees it, AmerisourceBergen Corp.’s Good Neighbor Pharmacy program is a bulwark for independent pharmacists against the pressures of a brutally competitive pharmacy market and an unforgiving economy.


Rite Aid recently has put into play a number of forward-looking initiatives to help improve operations, particularly across pharmacy. The Pennsylvania-based retailer last month announced its test market of six new Wellness store prototypes, and after successfully testing a 15-minute prescription guarantee in three states, Rite Aid expanded that guarantee to all states except New York. 


There’s nothing like a recession for focusing merchants on what matters most. For USA Drug, that meant concentrating on core markets, cutting costs and recharging its image for down-home value, neighborly service and a broadly merchandised front end focused on local consumer preferences.


Like most retailers in California, combo-store pioneer Raley’s Supermarkets has been in a slow growth mode since the recession began in 2008. “We still have 105 pharmacies, so not a lot has changed in the past few years,” said John Segale, a spokesman for the Sacramento-based chain.


Walgreens, the kaleidoscopic company that wants to “own well,” is shuffling management and realigning operations as it works to knock down its remaining internal silos and create a seamless, broad-based retail health-and-
wellness dynamo.



Most Care Pharmacies are located within and around the nation’s capital, and that suggests Care represents the face of pharmacy for a lot of influential Beltway executives. 


“[That proximity] really is an opportunity for us to represent independent pharmacy,” said Michael Wysong, Care CEO, whose office resides in the same building as the National Community Pharmacists Association. “We [also] co-market a [quality assurance] manual with NCPA. That’s a perfect example where we’re working hand in hand.”


Health and wellness is a major focus for grocer Albertsons, and that also holds true for its youngest of customers. 


Enter Healthy Kidz Club.