Special Reports Archive

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.

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.

The first time Method co-founders Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry tried to sell their eco-friendly cleaning products into Target, the then-buyer told them the products had a “snowball’s chance in hell.” At the New General Market Summit, co-hosted by Drug Store News and Mack Elevation in April, Ryan acknowledged that while lucky breaks may have played a role, there were three key elements in Method’s business strategy that took them from that first meeting to more than $100 million in Target sales in 2016.

Supplements are providing the perfect complement to drug store retailers’ bottom lines. Including meal replacement bars, energy shots, protein shakes and diet aids, sales of dietary supplements and nutrition-packed products across the supplement aisle continued to grow at a healthy 4.7% clip with more than $13.4 billion in sales across total U.S. multi-outlets for the 52 weeks ended April 16, according to the latest IRI data.

The question of how brands continue to remain relevant is one that is central among companies looking to make space for themselves among an ever-shifting consumer base. As companies look to engage the New General Market consumer, Seventh Generation CEO John Replogle said there is one key element uniting companies that are able to endure: Soul.

Protein bars have been flying off the shelves in mass outlets lately. Sales of nutritional bars were up 3.4% to $2.4 billion for the 52 weeks ended April 16, according to IRI across total U.S. multi-outlets.

Retailers and their suppliers are squandering opportunities to grow their businesses together strategically, a former Target executive told attendees at the third annual New General Market Summit, hosted by Drug Store News and Mack Elevation. “The discussion between retail and CPGs has been reduced to one issue only: How much money are you going to give me? How much cost reduction can we get?” said Daniel Duty, founder and CEO of Minneapolis-based Conlego Consulting.

Today’s consumers want CPG companies to do things that impact the world, and to be part of brands that make the world better. Ignoring this new emphasis and continuing to focus on product itself will only lead to a loss of market share.