RETAIL NEWS

Sam’s Club senior vice president and GMM of consumable and health and wellness will be retiring at the end of the fiscal year, a Sam’s Club spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. Turner-Mitchael is a 26-year veteran of the company, having joined Walmart in 1992 as a pharmacist in Lubbock, Texas.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores is bringing Grammy winning artists Huey Lewis and the News to NACDS Annual this year. The band will perform at the Opening Celebration of NACDS Annual, taking place from April 21 to April 24 at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla., this year.

Grocery retailer and wholesaler Supervalu has shared the results from its fiscal 2018 third-quarter, which included a boon to its wholesale business in the form of its Unified Grocers acquisition, even as retail sales declined. The Minneapolis-based company’s total continuing operations saw net sales of $3.94 billion — up 31% from $3 billion in the same period last year.

This year's flu continues to be Texas big, according to the Walgreens Flu Index released Wednesday, as the top 10 communities experiencing the greatest amount of flu incidence were all located in the Lone Star State for the week ended Jan. 6.

Iowa, Idaho and Arkansas rank behind Texas in terms of flu activity. And Montana, Idaho and Iowa ranked highest among states experiencing flu activity gains.

Rite Aid today unveiled the "new Rite Aid," a small but nimble, bicoastal regional chain that executives told the 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday will have the same buying power over the next 10 years of its one-time suitor Walgreens Boots Alliance.

The retailer said it now expects 2017 will be the fourth consecutive year in which its digital sales grow more than 25%.

Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens will be introducing the first implementations of its new store format later this spring, or in early summer, executives said Monday night at the 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The new format will mark the first major overhaul of the core Walgreens format since the finalization of its merger with Alliance Boots in December 2014.

A regional player is getting into the VMS business in a unique and personalized way. Ritzman Pharmacy, based in Medina, Ohio, last spring launched a new line of own-brand patient-customized supplements through its RefreshinQ division as part of a new wellness subscription offering.
 
“RefreshinQ is the future of Ritzman and [represents] how we’re positioning ourselves differently,” Ritzman Pharmacy president and COO George Glatcz said. “It’s changing the way we do business.”