In this Issue

The shave category is trying to get its groove back. With the exception of razors, where sales are up a healthy 10.6% for the 52-week period ended Sept. 4, 2016, as tracked by IRI across multi-outlets, all of the other categories in shave are down.

(To view the full Shave Report, click here.)

About 20 years ago, I took a job as senior editor for Drug Store News. My first beat assignment was the OTC business and about a dozen retail companies, including CVS Pharmacy. Back then, CVS had just won the right to buy Revco, and it was making regular headlines in Drug Store News-FIRST — the weekly news-fax (remember those?) edition of DSN that would later become our daily e-newsletter DSN A.M. — as it completed the biggest integration of stores and systems in the history of the retail pharmacy business.

The drug channel has seen the all-natural and organic beauty categories grow aggressively in recent years. The roster of brands offering natural and organic skin and hair care products has expanded, and consumers have more knowledge and choices when it comes to natural beauty than ever before.

(To view the full Category Review, click here.)

Two years ago, CVS Pharmacy made the bold decision to walk away from tobacco. It was the right move for a lot of reasons, but the fact remained: There was a $2 billion sales hole that needed to be plugged.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)

A lot of brands, both indie and mainstream, are rethinking their strategies when it comes to beauty products aimed at multicultural consumers.

(To view the full Category Review, click here.)

In the slightly less than one year since CVS Health acquired all of Target’s 1,669 pharmacies and 79 retail clinics, the company has completed the process of turning them into CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic locations, converting as many as 150 stores per week at the peak of the integration process.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)

CVS Health rocked the industry in 2014 when it removed cigarettes and tobacco from its pharmacy shelves in an effort to promote health and reduce chronic illnesses associated with tobacco-use. Now, the retailer is taking yet another stance against tobacco-use with a hefty $50 million initiative to help deliver the nation’s first tobacco-free generation.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)

The demographic that’s driving much of the 10.3% growth across external analgesics may come as a surprise because it isn’t an arthritis-suffering baby boomer.

(To view the full Category Review, click here.)