In this Issue

Drug Store News recently spoke with Phillip Dritsas, SVP and general manager, consumer division and specialty markets for Mission Pharmacal, about the opportunities for Dr. Smith’s products in both the baby and adult categories.

DSN: Can you tell us more about trends in both ends of the baby and adult category?

While consumers may be growing more health-conscious with their food choices, it seems there is still room for life’s little indulgences. According to new international research on snacking motivation from Mintel, Americans cited treating themselves as the top reason to snack (50%), and more than one-quarter (28%) agreed that taste is more important than health when choosing a snack.

“The formula for growth is simple. There’s really only three levers you can pull — find new buyers, get your buyers to spend more and/or raise prices,” said Chris Morley, president of fast-moving consumer goods, or FMCG, and retail at Nielsen. “But talk to most retailers and FMCG companies today, and they’ll tell you that growth is increasingly hard to find.”

Generic medications made up 89% of dispensed U.S. prescriptions in 2016, but only 26% of total drug costs. The use of generics brought savings of $253 billion in 2016, bringing the 10-year savings from generics to $1.67 trillion, according to the ninth annual “Generic Access and Savings in the U.S.” report compiled by the QuintilesIMS Institute for the Association for Accessible Medicines (formerly the Generic Pharmaceutical Association).

In newspaper ads placed in selected Congressional districts this August, NACDS is thanking members of the U.S. House of Representatives for co-sponsoring the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act (H.R. 592/S. 109). NACDS also is urging the members of Congress to work toward ultimate passage and enactment of the legislation.

The average household spends $3,400 on packaged goods, but the average grocery banner only captures as much as 20% of that, according to a recent IRI report. “With the overall market not growing, retailers and manufacturers need to find new sources of growth by capturing a bigger piece of the existing pie,” wrote Web Fletcher, principal at IRI Shopper Analytics and lead author of IRI’s “Delivering Growth Through High-Value Customers” research, which was published in July.

Vaccinations represent an emerging category within retail pharmacy for one simple reason: The majority of Americans prefer visiting their local pharmacy to get their inoculations, as opposed to visiting the doctor’s office, according to the PrescribeWellness 2017 Vaccination and Preventive Care Survey.

Already, retail pharmacy is the No. 2 destination for adults in search of their annual flu shot, with 24.3% of adults asking their pharmacists for a flu shot, compared with 37.4% who still ask their doctors, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Americans are spending more than $60 billion on beauty annually. To survive as a meaningful competitor in this evolving beauty arena, drug stores must start to burnish their image.