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CVS provided a healthy dose of convenience to urban dwellers with the opening of its Urban Cluster store concept late last year. The stores have a decidedly unique bend, being stocked with a broad range of consumables, including an expanded pantry offering and a selection of affordable wines priced under $7.


Comparison shopping across blood-glucose meters couldn’t be easier than at Walgreens. Pictured here at a store just outside of Baltimore, customers can hold and feel the individual monitors and review individual bullet points as part of this pull-box display. Located just outside the pharmacy waiting area, the display also is ideal for quick and easy pharmacist recommendations. 


In retailing, it’s a given that a long-term, severe recession will cut through the ranks of food, drug and general merchandise retailers like a scythe through wheat, pushing weaker players out of the market as consumer spending dries up and Darwinian realities winnow the field. But it’s also true that the strongest merchants can emerge not only intact, but also with even brighter prospects if they innovate, invest and retain the loyalty of their customers.


As of this past fall, many retailers began facing their condom displays upright as part of a supplier-driven efficiency program that will end up creating additional shelf space. On average, three vertical condom packages will occupy the same space once taken by only two horizontal condom packages. That means last year, only four packages would have fit in this shelf shot, taken at CVS. 


It has been a challenging few years for Walmart among ongoing sales difficulties, restructuring of senior leadership and the pursuit of a new, yet familiar, strategic direction. Despite all the turmoil and the constant media attention it received, Walmart’s health-and-wellness business unit remained a steady performer through 2010.


Beauty360 has been described as “a natural evolution” of CVS/pharmacy’s commitment to beauty, and there’s no denying that it is much different than any beauty department you’ll find in a traditional CVS/pharmacy store. As of press time, there were 25 Beauty360 stores in operation, located primarily in California. The first location was unveiled November 2008 at a Capitol district CVS store in the center of Dupont Circle.


Growing the health-and-wellness business remains a top priority for Sam’s Club as the warehouse club operator has identified those key categories as areas where it can demonstrate value, drive member loyalty and gain market share.


Sam’s has high expectations for health and wellness, along with food and consumables, as it looks to deliver on its brand promise of “savings made simple” and maintain the same-store sales momentum experienced throughout 2010 that culminated with a 2.7% gain in the fourth quarter.


Looking more like a shelf within Bath & Body Works than one you’d find in retail pharmacy is the Essence of Beauty endcap spotted within one CVS/pharmacy in New York. Essence of Beauty is available exclusively at CVS/pharmacy and online at CVS.com.