In this Issue

The retail behemoth of Bentonville, Ark., wants to lead Americans to better health habits, better nutritional choices and longer, healthier lives. It’s an ambitious mission for any retail chain, but given its long reach into the nation’s heartland, its enormous marketing clout and its massive consumer drawing power, Walmart’s ability to boost the nation’s health and longevity index may be unmatched by any other single entity save the U.S. government.

Purveyors of health products have been riding the baby boomer wave for some time now, and it doesn’t appear to be cresting any time soon. According to the Population Reference Bureau, the number of Americans ages 65 years old and older is projected to more than double from 46 million today to more than 98 million by 2060, and the 65-and-older age group’s share of the total population will rise to nearly 24% from 15%.

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Masculine grooming choices are soaring — beard services are up 20%, men’s hair lightening 110% and men’s coloring 8%, according to Kline Pro, which also found men are especially interested in products for thinning hair, finishing and shine. The brands men look for include Layrite, Baxter and Jack Black.

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With the oldest of the baby boomers celebrating birthday No. 71 in 2017, sales of durable medical equipment and the kind of home health products that help transition patient care from hospital settings to the home in the retail setting have only one direction to go. And that’s up.

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Specialty and biotech medicines aimed at treating cancer, multiple sclerosis and rare diseases will dominate much of drug development in 2017 and beyond, one of the nation’s top specialty pharmacy providers concluded.

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Among the 22 novel new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2016, about half were considered specialty drugs, and Diplomat identified four key specialty approvals that innovate in certain categories. Two of these were in the hepatitis C space, which has driven specialty growth for several years.

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For those retailers bold enough to sniff out a fresh opportunity, at least as far as the mass merchant space is concerned, aromatherapy realized some rosy sales gains in 2016. Citing Nielsen data, Piping Rock reported the aromatherapy opportunity in mass is racing along at an annual growth trajectory of 121%, reaching $44 million for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 31, 2016 across all outlets combined.

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Maybe men have been the secret all along to pumping up front-end sales.

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