HEALTH

Sam’s Club has been on a roll the past few years, and an emphasis on health-and-wellness categories has figured prominently into the warehouse club operator’s improved performance.


Safe and effective. Those are the selling points that homeopathy has been emphasizing with mass consumers, and it’s working. Sales of homeopathic products as measured by SPINSscan across food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart) were up 16%, reaching a sales base of $126.1 million. That’s 2.5 times larger than the natural channel, where consumers actually place the fact that a medicine is homeopathic higher up on their 
decision matrix.


LOS ANGELES — To help under-the-weather junior, Hyland’s has rebranded its pediatric line of products Hyland’s Baby. Hyland’s cough-cold liquid offerings are trending at 76.5% growth to $2.6 million for the 12 weeks ended Oct. 30, 
according to SymphonyIRI Group across food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart).


MIAMI — Winn-Dixie’s latest transformational remodel in Miami is a store of the future with a merengue twist, featuring a strong Hispanic influence.

In addition to bilingual signage, Winn-Dixie incorporates the regional flair with features like a full-service Cuban café replete with such Spanish pastries as empanadas, as well as a wide variety of Hispanic products.

“Just 1-in-4 consumers expect their financial position to improve in the coming year.” That’s the way SymphonyIRI Group saw it in its recently released report “The Downturn Shopper: Buckled in for a wild and crazy ride.” Among the highlights — or lowlights — of how consumers are responding to the pressure:


• 49% visit the hair salon/spa less often;


• 40% are trying fewer new products;


Upon entering eRxCity on the second floor of a medical building at the corner of Mott and Canal streets in Chinatown in New York City, the store’s whole concept becomes clear from a slogan printed on the wall across from a flat-screen TV showing Hong Kong soap operas: “The next generation pharmacy.”


The holidays stand as prime time heartburn season with Thanksgiving dinners and holiday get-togethers on the calendar. And that doesn’t even cover the obligatory holiday fruitcakes.


WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission last week jointly filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut, seeking to permanently stop a Connecticut-based operation that allegedly used fake news websites to promote its products, made deceptive weight-loss claims and told consumers they could receive free trials of acai berry and "colon cleanse" products, only if they paid the nominal cost of shipping and handling.