‘This is your time,’ Total Store Expo attendees told

BOSTON — Health care and consumer packaged goods retailers and suppliers are on the cusp of unprecedented success, National Association of Chain Drug Stores president and chief executive officer Steve Anderson said at the organization’s Total Store Expo.

Steve Anderson

“If this moment in time cannot be called a renaissance … of health, wellness and consumer-focused retailing, then no time in our history will ever bear that name,” he said.

Anderson said the wide-ranging companies represented by NACDS can benefit from their differences. He called the present “a unique time in our nation’s history — a driver that translates diversity into advantage. It’s not just that the stars are aligning. The stars are colliding. This is your time.”

Health, wellness and patient-centered retailing “have gone mainstream,” he added, citing the results of NACDS’ latest survey of attitudes toward pharmacy. The July survey demonstrated strong and growing support for new pharmacy services, as well as a reliance on pharmacists as sources of information about prescription and over-the-counter drugs and personal health questions. It also revealed a reliance on stores with pharmacies as sources of diverse personal care products.

The survey found that half of respondents had discussed a medication with a pharmacist in the past year, and more than 70% said they valued a pharmacist’s recommendation on an O-T-C drug. About three-tenths of respondents had spoken to a pharmacist about a personal health question.

John Standley

Anderson also described initiatives under way in Washington to examine opportunities for health care advances.

“Something very interesting is going on in Congress and, surprisingly, it’s positive and bipartisan. There seems to be a race to capture the flag of health care innovation. Members of Congress are looking for what’s next in health care. They’re kind of looking for health care reform 2.0, and NACDS is positioning the health and wellness solutions of chains and suppliers as part of it.”

John Standley, chairman and CEO of Rite Aid Corp. and chairman of NACDS, said community pharmacy is at a pivotal juncture in the effort to further the nation’s health and wellness.

“This is a critical point in time for the chain drug industry,” said Standley. “Health care delivery is undergoing historic change, placing unprecedented demands on our businesses while presenting enormous opportunities to grow.”

The industry is already being recast through increased offerings of medication therapy management and services such as immunizations, he said.

Scenes from the Total Store Expo: Walgreens’ Alex Gourlay

In 2008 chain pharmacies administered over 5 million immunizations, he noted. By last year that number was more than 25 million. “If we were able to have that much success with one clinical service in the last five years,” he said, “imagine what we can do over the next five.”

Standley described ways in which collaboration between retailers and suppliers helps retail pharmacy meet patients’ and consumers’ needs. “This is the perfect time for us to come together and challenge ourselves to be better, smarter and more efficient in all aspects of our business,” he said. “Our business is shifting and changing, and we must ensure that we change along with it.”

“The Total Store Expo gives us the opportunity to change by building stronger partnerships that fuel innovation throughout our companies,” he added. “At the heart of this process is the relationship between suppliers and retailers.”

He provided a case study of Rite Aid’s progress as a result of such collaboration, and referenced ample evidence of successful and similar partnerships throughout the industry.

“At Rite Aid, our relationship with supplier partners really began to grow and evolve about four years ago, when we first launched our wellness store initiative. Like other drug store chains, we were highly focused on becoming a health and wellness destination, offering services like immunizations and patient counseling that went far beyond filling prescriptions,” Standley said.

Scenes from the Total Store Expo: Cardinal Health’s Mike Kaufmann and Lewis Drug’s Mark Griffin.

“So the question became: ‘How do we align our front-end offering to support this health and wellness transformation so that we can deliver an engaging total store experience to our customers?’ ”

Partnerships with suppliers led to merchandising concepts that improved engagement with consumers, he said.

“Our transformation is unique, but it also has similarities to what’s occurring at other retailers throughout our industry,” he added.

Standley also credited NACDS and its allies with securing an important victory for patient care, citing the federal government’s decision to delay reimbursement rate changes for Medicaid.

The Total Store Expo’s keynote speaker, former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, said the nation will remain economically vibrant thanks to ongoing technological development; strong free markets; an entrepreneurial tradition; and a young, diverse and growing workforce. The show’s attendance topped 5,500.