Top Retailers

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway on Tuesday said that it expects to earn $1.60 to $1.80 per diluted share during the quarter, after the company's board approved a $1.1 billion dividend from Canada to the United States.

The dividend, Safeway said during its 2011 investor conference, will be used to pay off $600 million of U.S. debt, and the company will use the remainder of the dividend for share repurchases.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Cheryl Pegus, chief medical officer at Walgreens, will make a presentation during the 11th annual Population Health and Care Coordination Colloquium in Philadelphia next week.

Pegus, who was named the drug store chain's chief medical officer last May, will present during the “Impact and Value of Pharmacist Interventions in Different Settings” session, which will examine the growing role pharmacists are playing in improving clinical outcomes through interventions at community pharmacies and employer worksite health clinics, Walgreens said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Smith & Nephew's advanced wound management division on Saturday announced a U.S. voluntary nationwide recall of selected lots of IV PREP antiseptic wipes (product No. 59421200), manufactured for Smith & Nephew by the Triad Group, due to concerns about potential microbial contamination with Bacillus cereus.

Use of contaminated alcohol prep pads, wipes and swabs could lead to life-threatening infections, especially in such at-risk populations as immune-suppressed and surgical patients.

Few supermarkets make health and wellness as central to their business as Hy-Vee, a West Des Moines, Iowa-based chain.

In December 2010, the chain announced it would become one of a number of retailers — including Kroger and Safeway — to participate in Pharmacy Saver, a new program offered in collaboration with UnitedHealthcare, the country’s largest Medicare Part D insurer. The program was launched, in part, as a response to the Humana Walmart-Preferred Rx Plan, launched in late September 2010.

One supermarket operator is literally driving customers to its pharmacies.

Customers at Royal Ahold’s Giant-Landover stores can earn one Gas Rewards point for every dollar spent on purchases in Giant pharmacies in Maryland, most of Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C. With the program, for example, a $20 pharmaceutical co-pay earns 20 points and a $50 pharmacy purchase earns 50 points. For every 100 Gas Rewards points earned, shoppers save 10 cents off every gallon of gas bought at Giant and participating Shell gas stations.

Publix routinely makes strategic moves to enhance the customer experience in the pharmacy and health-and-wellness arena that are rooted in the customer service mindset that has made its supermarkets so popular.

Last fall the company introduced a new larger, triangular-shaped pill bottle that is designed to be easier to open. While the pill bottle redesign didn’t go as far as the award-winning program Target introduced a few years back, the move underscored the fact that Publix is a pharmacy innovator.

NEW YORK — Amid researching its customers' changing media habits, supermarket retailer Supervalu has partnered with a leading provider of digital marketing services and technology to enhance how the grocer reaches customers.

Supervalu said that after conducting a joint study with Nielsen Catalina Solutions, which measured more than 30 million impressions delivered by PointRoll, in-store sales at Supervalu experienced an overall increase during a three-month period, thanks to PointRoll's PaperBoy eCircular, an interactive expandable ad unit.

The nation’s largest supermarket chain wants a bigger share of the U.S. pharmacy and wellness market. To get it, Kroger is brandishing a growing arsenal of health and preventive services, and burnishing its image for value and convenience at the prescription counter.