Opinion

“There is a danger in bifurcating the customer base into these nice names: boomers and millennials. As a proud member of Generation X, what ever happened to my generation? I think about it in terms of how do we understand customers as individuals.”

That’s what CVS VP marketing George Coleman had to say in December, at the annual Drug Store News Industry Issues Summit. I have been thinking about that a lot in the last couple months, as we worked on the New General Market report that appears in this issue.

As patients look for ways to obtain healthcare in more convenient and lower-cost settings, new opportunities are emerging for retail pharmacies to help meet patient needs. Many pharmacies already are recognized as cost-efficient channels for expanding public access to vaccinations, disease management, medication management, and other clinical services. 

When I started covering this business about 20 years ago, there was a lot of attention around channel blurring. With supermarkets and mass merchants adding pharmacy counters and expanding health and beauty, while drug stores added more food, the neat lines that the trade had once used to distinguish one retail channel from another were becoming harder to delineate.

The Idea: Could Prince have been the greatest artist (and brand experience) of the generation?  His sudden passing has disrupted the music industry and the broader creative culture.  Whether one appreciated his music or didn’t, his talent was magnetic.  You could not ignore his ability and desire to seek truths; you could not ignore his ability to tell a story; you could not ignore his authenticity.  And that is something that everyone could learn from.

I often use the expression and encourage others to “Look around the corner.” My intent is to reinforce the importance of not becoming too comfortable with the status quo. New opportunities present themselves everyday – but you may have to stretch your imagination a bit and connect dots that are not yet formally established.

In this issue, Drug Store News previews its DSN 2016 Yearbook, featuring our annual PoweRx company profiles. The full report will be available this summer with exclusive company rankings and profiles of every company in our Top 50. One thing that stands out and is a common theme among all companies featured in the report is that big and small, chains and independents alike, across every class of trade, community pharmacy is transforming more and more from simply a medication-dispensing model to a retail healthcare services provider model.

There was once a time when “Made in China” was not part of the U.S. experience, but that changed in the 1980s. No longer was our Chinese connection limited to fortune cookies and take-out.

During my first trip to Beijing in 1985 as a major Multi-national company representative, I hosted a banquet. A senior government official attended. He arrived on a bicycle.

Then, things changed; they really changed.