VMSD - March 2013 - (Page 36)
S E CTOR S POTLIGHT: D RUGSTORES
PILLS P
LUS
Pharmacies are getting back to the business of
emphasizing prescriptions – and the occasional sushi bar.
By Steve Kaufman, Editor at Large
For several decades, the big pharmacy chains seemed
to be delivering the message, “We do more than just
fill prescriptions.”
Aisles and gondolas full of soft drinks, chips,
crackers, school supplies, household items, and
even beer and wine in some localities, gobbled up
huge amounts of real estate, while the pharmacy
counter remained squeezed in the back, seemingly
unchanged since the Eisenhower era.
The pharmacist stood removed in a raised studio
behind thick glass, while customers crowded around
the counter, shouting out their birth dates, insurance
coverage and current illness to anyone within earshot.
“The pharmacy counter was the drugstore equivalent of a supermarket’s milk and eggs,” says Greg
Tribbe, co-founder, partner and creative director of
the New York design firm Gilmore Group. “It was
why people came into the store. You knew they’d go
back there, so you didn’t have to make it attractive.
By hiding the pharmacy in the back of the store,
36 MARCH 2013 | vmsd.com
you guaranteed that shoppers would interact with
cosmetics, personal care products and Ritz crackers
along the way.”
That’s all changing diametrically. Today, the big
chains seem to be saying, “Hey, remember us, we fill
your prescriptions.”
After all, prescriptions have by far the biggest
profit margins in the store. And the competition has
stiffened. Walmart, Kmart, Target and Meijer all fill
prescriptions. So does every supermarket chain. As
the independent corner pharmacy is going the way
of the land line telephone, the big three have one
thing going for them – ubiquity. Walgreens has more
than 8000 stores, CVS more than 7500 and Rite-Aid
nearly 5000.
With all those locations, says Tribbe, “today’s
drug store is the C-store of the cities, the street corner equivalent of elevated, modern gas stations like
On the Run or Wawa.”
Convenience is an apt term, says Lee Peterson,
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - March 2013
VMSD - March 2013
Contents
From the Editor
VMSD Editorial Advisory Board
The Goods
Sushi Stunner
Jump Start
American Dream
Balance Beam
Pills Plus
Showroom
Ad Index
Checking Out
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