RETAIL NEWS

CVS Health and Aetna on Sunday announced their plan to merge. Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS Health will be acquiring Aetna, whose headquarters are in Hartford, Conn.,  for roughly $69 billion, or $207 per share. The two companies said that the merger offers the potential to change how patients access care at lower cost.

Costco “turned in a month for the ages in the current retail environment,” Ken Perkins, analyst at Retail Metrics, told MarketWatch.

Net sales surged 13.2% to $11.26 billion in November, up from $9.95 billion in the year-ago period. Online sales rose 39%, and were up 44% in the 12-week period through Nov. 26, helped by an expanded assortment and faster delivery times.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be working with the American Pharmacists Association to build infrastructure to expand a program from the National Diabetes Prevention Program within community pharmacies.

With flu season set to kick into gear soon, CVS Health is marking National Influenza Vaccination Week by reminding patients to get their flu shots. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established the week of awareness to remind patients to get vaccinated. The Woonsocket, R.I.-based company recently ran a survey that found that 61% of patients get a flu vaccine every year, or plan to get one this year.

OraSure Technologies on Thursday announced several new HIV testing-related initiatives in recognition of World AIDS Day.  OraSure is working with The AIDS Institute to launch a grant program to encourage the development of HIV self testing programs and collaborating with both The AIDS Institute and Walgreens, based in Deerfield, Ill., to promote rapid HIV testing in cities across the U.S.

Throughout what Amazon calls the “Turkey 5,” or the five shopping days spanning Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, Amazon customers “worldwide ordered at record levels,” according to the online giant.

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba once said, “You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.” As the Chinese consumer healthcare market continues to rocket forward, what can we learn from them?  For my dollar — or yuan — quite a bit.

Albertsons, the nation’s second-largest traditional grocery retailer, has signed an agreement with Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery service, that will allow the retailer to offer same-day deliveries in as little as an hour.