RETAIL NEWS

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens Boots Alliance met with various investors to clarify its participation in the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration 340B drug pricing program.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2017, prescriptions related to the 340B program represented less than 1% of the Retail Pharmacy USA division’s prescription volume, Walgreens noted. The division has around 1,200 340B contracts. During the first nine months of fiscal 2017, 340B prescriptions were filled at approximately 6,100 of the division’s pharmacies.

WASHINGTON — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has shared its thoughts on the proposed Border Adjustment Tax with members of the Senate Finance Committee ahead of the committee’s hearing this week.  In its comments, the organization outlined the impact that the BAT would have on pharmacies and patients.

SUNBURY, Pa. — Weis Markets last week announced Donna Banks-Ficcio has joined the company as VP center store sales and merchandising, where she will oversee the company’s grocery, dairy, frozen, HBC/GM and beer and wine departments. Her oversight responsibilities include category management, merchandising and pricing and she will report to Richard Gunn, SVP merchandising and marketing.

The food retail industry is reeling from disruption. Consumer preferences are changing so quickly that companies are having trouble keeping up. Industry consolidation is producing out-of-the-box deals, such as Amazon’s recently announced agreement to acquire Whole Foods.

PARIS — Sephora continues to experiment with store formats, and this time it's going smaller.

CHICAGO — IRI announced earlier this week that it has reached a long-term agreement with Southeastern Grocers to leverage analytics to better serve its existing customers and attract new shoppers. SEG is the fifth-largest supermarket chain in the United States based on store count and is the parent company of Winn-Dixie, BI-LO, Harveys and Fresco y Más grocery stores, IRI reported.

ATLANTA — More than 100 million U.S. adults are now living with diabetes or prediabetes, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of 2015 30.3 million Americans, or 9.4% of the U.S. population, have diabetes. Another 84.1 million have prediabetes, a condition that if not treated often leads to type 2 diabetes within five years.