RITE AID

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT — Rite Aid is a glass-half-full/glass-half-empty kind of company. If your glass is half full, you’re looking at the sequential improvements in pharmacy margins and front-end comps, and the excitement around the chain’s still-new Wellness+ loyalty program. If your glass is half empty, you’re making note of the seven straight quarters of script declines and the fact that Rite Aid had to lower sales projections … again. Our glass is half full.

CHICAGO — Millennium Pharmacy Systems on Friday announced the appointment of Phil Keough as EVP and COO.

"Millennium's innovative and cost-effective medication management approach offers critically needed solutions to the long-term care market,” Keough said. “By eliminating drug waste, enhancing administrative processes and improving patient safety, Millennium is changing the face of pharmacy solutions in the marketplace.”

CAMP HILL, Pa. — What Rite Aid might wish for Christmas is accelerated results borne from its Wellness+ loyalty card program, because even as the chain lowered its guidance for fiscal 2011 sales, it’s that differentiated loyalty program that executives believe is going to buttress sales next year and beyond.

NEW YORK — Rite Aid recently was awarded Advertising Age’s Media Vanguard Award in the category “Best Use of Online Video for Customer Service” for its "Giving Care for Parents" original online video series.

Working with Fox Learning Systems, Rite Aid created a comprehensive library of online videos that offered advice and guidance on specific health issues, including dementia, diabetes, cancer and injuries due to falls, in similar tone and production quality to TV news show health segments, AdAge reported.


NEW YORK — Walgreens. Costco. CVS Caremark. Rite Aid. H-E-B. Wegmans. Kerr Drug. The list goes on. In all, it was a veritable who’s who of retailing as Drug Store News’ annual Industry 
Issues Summit, which also included a Specialty Pharmacy Roundtable and Diabetes Roundtable, attracted more than 200 attendees — a new attendance record — and featured the most diverse retail panelists to date.


CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid on Thursday posted sales of $6.2 billion, down 2.3%, for its third quarter ended Nov. 27. Same-store sales for the period declined 1.3%, representing flat front-end sales and a pharmacy comparable sales decline of 1.9%.

For the five-week period ended Nov. 27, which includes Black Friday sales, front-end sales were up 1.3% while pharmacy same-store sales, which included an approximate 248 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions, declined 2.5%. Overall monthly comps fell 1.3%.

NEW YORK — The entire retail store is a diabetes destination, and pharmacists are critical in educating and communicating with consumers to help them and their loved ones better manage the chronic disease. That was one of several important messages that industry leaders expressed during Drug Store News’ 8th Annual Diabetes Roundtable discussion on Tuesday in New York at the New York Athletic Club. More than 100 leading industry players gathered for the event, which also included the 12th Annual Industry Issues Summit in the afternoon.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Diabetica Research Solutions is spreading the word about its diabetes energy formula with a new media program that targets the New York metropolitan area.

The targeted media program for DRSI ReStore! Energy — which now is available at Duane Reade and Rite Aid pharmacies in the area — supplements the brand's national television campaign, includes high saturation local commercial spots on television and radio, and internet banner ads to appear specifically on Web pages viewed by people in New York and the surrounding area.