WALGREENS

ST. LOUIS — Express Scripts chairman and CEO George Paz on Thursday played down the impact of Walgreens' exit from its pharmacy network.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Pharmacy and identical-store sales were identified as positives for Safeway, which discussed its fourth-quarter results with analysts on Thursday.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Christie Clinic last week announced it had entered into a purchase agreement with Walgreens for the sale of two of the former's pharmacy operations.

Walgreens will lease the space currently occupied by Christie Clinic for its new operations. The transfer is expected to be completed by the end of March. Walgreens plans to keep both pharmacy locations open and is renovating the facilities, including new signage.

LEESBURG, Va. — RxAlly on Wednesday announced the launch of the first-of-its-kind alliance of more than 20,000 pharmacies nationwide, united to help patients achieve better health through personalized pharmacist care while reducing costs.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Tuesday partnered with Passport Health Plan, a local Medicaid health plan in Louisville, Ky.,  on a new smoking-cessation program that launched in early January. The program is free to Walgreens customers and Passport members and aims to improve the community’s health by giving smokers the tools, resources and ongoing clinical pharmacist counseling to help them achieve their cessation goals.

DAYTON, Ohio — While Walmart maintained the No. 1 position on Interbrand's "U.S. Most Valuable Retail Brands" list for 2012, several other retailers are moving up the ranks.

Although Walmart touts a value that's more than $139 billion, this year also marked a 2% decrease for the big box retailer, Interbrand said. Second on this year's list was Target, which holds a value of $23 billion, a 1% increase over last year.

Brian Cornell has stepped down as Sam’s Club president and CEO, and has been replaced by Rosalind Brewer, who previously served as president of the Walmart U.S. East business unit. Walmart also named Rollin Ford chief administrative officer with responsibility for information systems, global sourcing, global business processes, global shared services and global customer insights. Ford was most recently chief information officer; Karenann Terrell replaced Ford as CIO. Gisel Ruis was named EVP and COO of Walmart U.S., responsible for U.S.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — Retailers have always been about enhancing the shopping experience, but there are two factors this year that really should underscore the importance in that customer focus. Differentiating a retail shopping trip by experience is a lot friendlier to the margins because a shopper willing to trade on shopping experience also is willing to spend a little more.