RETAIL NEWS

MODESTO, Calif. — Nicole Piccinini Pesco, co-president and chief strategy and branding officer of the Save Mart Companies, has been promoted to CEO.

Last year Save Mart launched its first new concept store format in over 20 years with the introduction of Lucky California. At the time, Pesco said:  “We’ve been working for several years refining our strategy because customers today are very different than 10 years ago, even two years ago. This has been a long time coming."

LAS VEGAS – McKesson's High Volume Solutions group on Friday announced the  launch of Central Fill as a Service (CFaaS), a McKesson-operated, centralized solution that allows pharmacies to use central fill without the investment in equipment, inventory or staffing (other than a pharmacist). Instead of the traditional central fill model that requires significant upfront investment, CFaaS is available to customers through a per-prescription fee that can dramatically reduce the pharmacy’s per-prescription cost to dispense.

WASHINGTON - The nation's military covered under TRICARE were given new marching orders effective Dec. 1 as Walgreens joined TRICARE's retail pharmacy network, displacing CVS Health as a preferred pharmacy in the Express Scripts-managed network.

That move could displace as many as 16 million of CVS Health's most profitable prescriptions, many of which Walgreens will be endeavoring to capture.

NEW YORK -- Nielsen and Label Insight, a cloud-based product data refinery platform, announced Thursday a strategic alliance to help bring clarity to food, beverage and non-food transparency for the consumer packaged goods and retail industry by tracking sales of items by way of ingredients.

Reductions in food-stamp benefits and falling grocery prices took a toll on Dollar General Corp.’s third-quarter performance which came in below expectations and included an unexpected drop in same-store sales.

The company reported a profit of $235 million, or $0.84 per diluted share, in the quarter, compared to net income of $253 million, or $0.86 per diluted share, in the year ago period. Its profit included a charge of about 5 cents per share for store relocation costs and disaster-related expenses.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. -- As many as 82% of voters say they are somewhat or highly satisfied with the care they receive from health care providers, and nearly three quarters of respondents report that they are satisfied with their health care coverage, CVS Health reported Wednesday, citing a public opinion poll conducted by the pharmacy leader in November 2016 with more than 1,800 registered voters.

Beauty stores are hot — and shoppers around the globe can’t seem to get enough of them. 

With hundreds of new door openings during 2015-2016, boutique beauty stores remain on a high growth trajectory, according to an upcoming study from market intelligence and research firm Kline.

Vertically integrated beauty specialty stores offering an immersive, single brand experience and supported by cult-like followings of younger generations, including millennials, are seeing expansion across multiple countries, the report finds.

CHICAGO -- ItemMaster on Thursday announced a new content partnership with Walmart.com to make available manufacturer's Complete & Verified product records. This allows IM Certified Brand Content and additional IM Content+ branded content such as videos and commercials to be made accessible to shoppers surfing Walmart.com.