RITE AID

BOSTON — More and more success at retail is contingent upon delivering what the consumer wants, when she wants it, where she wants it and at the price she wants it.

According to a panel of consumer manufacturers and retail executives from Navarro Discount Pharmacies and Rite Aid, she wants fresh, health and wellness all neatly packaged with a value-priced bow. And she wants it in the drug channel.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Sales may have been flat overall, but a closer look revealed there was a lot to be positive about in Rite Aid’s fiscal first quarter 2012 earnings, as the company managed significant expense improvement and stronger same-store sales growth. Bottom line: Rite Aid narrowed its losses considerably, and that ain’t all expense control.

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — The first thing one notices upon entering Rite Aid’s new Wellness concept store in Mechanicsburg, Pa., is how bright, airy and open it looks, compared with a typical retail pharmacy, thanks to a new paint job and lower shelves that left some customers with the mistaken impression that the store had new lighting.

WASHINGTON — An investment group that holds approximately 3 million shares of Rite Aid stock is calling for an overhaul of the retail pharmacy chain’s board ahead of its annual stockholders meeting next Thursday.

In a letter to Rite Aid’s board of directors, the CtW Investment Group, which works with pension funds sponsored by unions affiliated with the nonprofit group Change to Win, said its analysis found that only 4-of-the-11 nominees named in Rite Aid’s May 13th proxy statement were sufficiently independent to represent public shareholders.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid is partnering with the Skin Cancer Foundation to launch a healthy skin care campaign for the summer, the retail pharmacy chain announced Monday.

The campaign, which will last through July 26, will include free informational guides in all the chain’s stores and online, as well as promotions for skin care products and a national tour featuring free full-body skin cancer screenings by local dermatologists and advice from Rite Aid pharmacists.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Same-store sales at Rite Aid increased by 1.3% in May, compared with the year-ago period, the retail pharmacy chain said Thursday.

Reporting sales for the five-week period that ended May 28, Rite Aid said front-end same-store sales increased 1.8%, while same-store sales in the pharmacy increased by 1%, including a 129-basis-point offset due to introductions of new generic drugs. Prescription count increased 0.1%.

Total drug store sales during the period were nearly $2.5 billion, a 1% increase over $2.45 billion in May 2010.

PITTSBURGH — GNC on Monday announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Shadow Beverages and Snacks, the producer and distributor of Ironclad Energy + Hydration and No Fear Energy drinks.

The deal is expected to push the GNC brand name beyond its retail base and partnership with Rite Aid in the drug channel. Under the terms of the licensing agreement, Shadow Beverages and Snacks will produce a line of ready-to-drink products that will be marketed under the GNC brand.

Neither one of the co-
recipients of this year’s Fantle Award would want you to call it the end of an era.