RETAIL NEWS

SAN FRANCISCO — Instacart is expanding its same-day delivery in Phiadelphia through Giant, the grocer announced Thursday.

"This partnership with Instacart gives our customers in the greater Philadelphia area another convenient delivery option," stated Tom Lenkevich, president of Giant. "From quality to convenience, our job is to provide the best possible experience for our shoppers, and now that includes providing them with a same-day delivery solution."

SEATTLE — Shoppers in Denver are getting their first taste of Amazon Prime Now.

The service, which is exclusive to the online giant’s Prime members, provides free two-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items, from household and daily essentials to electronics, games and outdoor supplies. Area Prime members can order through Amazon’s Prime Now app, available on iOS and Android devices, Amazon’s web site, or “speak” orders to their Alexa device.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — In an attempt to gauge patients’ attitudes toward the cost of prescription drugs, CVS Health in April conducted a survey of registered voters, whose results the company released Thursday. The survey found that 88% of respondents are somewhat or very concerned about the high cost of prescription drugs.

TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Hospital Express Care at Walgreens retail healthcare clinics are now open in 15 Walgreens locations throughout Tampa Bay.

The Vitamin Shoppe for the past year has been steadily redefining the brick-and-mortar experience for natural health shoppers via its latest store prototype, the Brand Defining Store, currently in nine locations with another five to open soon. “We’re always looking for innovative ways to enhance our customer’s wellness journey, and our BDS stores are one of many examples of how we’re increasing consumer engagement and improving the customer experience overall,” Jason Reiser, The Vitamin Shoppe’s COO, told Drug Store News.

CINCINNATI — Kroger on Thursday reported net earnings of $303 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, and a decline in identical supermarket sales , without fuel, of 0.2% in the first quarter of 2017.

Probiotics are one of the better-selling categories within the VMS space, as evidenced by the number of growing probiotic brands on the top 10 mineral supplement brand chart, which is where IRI captures many of the probiotic SKUs. While market-leading mineral supplement brands Nature Made and Nature’s Bounty certainly include probiotics, i-Health’s Culturelle brand is the best-selling pure-play probiotic brand with $123.1 million in sales on 8.9% growth across total U.S. multi-outlets, according to IRI.

At the Drug Store News/Mack Elevation New General Market Summit, Mack Elevation managing director Dan Mack told attendees, “The New General Market is a mindset — it’s not defined by demography or skin color or religion or sex or sexual orientation — it’s driven by a mindset of inclusion.”