Despite the appeal of drive-through pharmacy, and supermarkets' growing commitment to it, physical challenges stand in the way of widespread adoption. How to retrofit windows or pneumatic tube systems into existing stores or add them to new ones -- at costs that allow for high return on investment -- are top of mind over operations or consumer issues, said pharmacy directors and other experts interviewed by SN.
Consumers trust the integrity of prescription dispensing when it occurs through windows or tubes, according to a recent study by the Food Marketing Institute, Washington. FMI's data revealed that 63% of supermarkets already offer in-store pharmacies, and drive-through is gaining traction. Ten percent of shoppers said their stores now offer the service, and of those consumers, 20% use it at least once a month.
"I'd put a drive-through in every location we have if a reasonable opportunity existed," said Ron Shapiro, director of pharmacy, Clemens Family Markets, Kulpsville, Pa.
"Drive-through is an excellent idea. It gives customers the convenience they're looking for. For a mom with young kids -- and one of them is sick -- the last thing they need to do is traipse into the pharmacy and wait at least 15 minutes for the prescription. At least with drive-through, maybe one adult could drop it off and another could pick it up on the way home from work," Shapiro said.
"Our focus is totally customer-driven," said Mark Polli, director, pharmacy professional services, Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, Maine. "We're satisfied with the acceptance and use of our drive-throughs, and while it's not our No. 1 priority, we're looking at selected stores where we may benefit from drive-through down the road."
To Shapiro and Polli, it matters little that a drive-through means a person won't actually enter the store and be tempted to buy other merchandise. "They're our core customers. They already shop us, and we realize they won't use the drive-through every time," Shapiro noted. Clemens stores would be willing to "do our best to honor a request for an [over-the-counter product] along with a prescription. We'd be servicing additional needs and building loyalty."
Polli would do the same "if in the pharmacists' professional judgment, it doesn't abuse the convenience for other drive-through window customers. There'd be no food or photo processing going through there."
The convenience of drive-through may become a competitive necessity. "As much as a customer has an allegiance to a particular supermarket, if it lacks a drive-through and they need that service on that day, they'll go elsewhere, even if it costs an extra dollar or so," said Terry Roberts, director of sales and marketing, E.F. Bavis and Associates, Cincinnati, a supplier of drive-through windows and related technology.
FMI's figures only begin to hint at the potential of drive-through popularity, Roberts contended. "Several supermarket chains we've equipped tell us the drive-through window should account for as much as 25% to 30% of prescriptions dispensed, or in the single digits with a [more remote] pneumatic tube system."
Bavis and Diebold, North Canton, Ohio, are today's leading sources of drive-through equipment and have, for example, contributed to the pioneering effort of Walgreen Co., Deerfield, Ill., to equip stores with this dose of convenience. The drug store chain has stated on its Web site that "since 1994, most new Walgreens have included a drive-through pharmacy and today, more than 80% of Walgreens stores offer this convenience." Roberts noted that virtually all of the chain's freestanding sites have two-lane drive-throughs.
"If it wasn't successful with respect to ROI [return on investment], why would the top drug chains do it so often?" he posed.
While Walgreens paved the way for consumer acceptance of drive-throughs in the drug store channel, there's no similarly aggressive retailer among supermarkets.
That could be a function of physical constraints. Food stores regard retrofits as costly -- one chain source estimated tens of thousands of dollars if it requires moving a pharmacy to another part of the store. Even new construction may not leave an opportunity for drive-through lanes.
Perhaps Kroger comes closest, however. Divisional Web sites indicate that the chain's Mid South Division (Kentucky and parts of Indiana, Illinois and Tennessee) has drive-through in most pharmacies, and its Southeast Division (Georgia, Alabama and parts of Tennessee) operates 27 stores with drive-through. At least one Tennessee remodel uses a remote kiosk with video and voice communication due to space constraints.
Many of the 18,500-square-foot Osco and Sav-on standalone drug stores of Albertsons, Boise, Idaho, are located on corners amenable to drive-through pharmacy, a convenience that "many offer," according to a 10-K filing for the fiscal year that ended Jan. 29, 2004.
Meanwhile, sources at Farm Fresh Supermarkets, Virginia Beach, Va. -- a division of Supervalu, Eden Prairie, Minn. -- and K-VA-T Food Stores, Abingdon, Va., confirmed to SN that they each operate one drive-through pharmacy. However, they declined to comment further for this story because their experiences are so new. They appear to be at the same stage as many food chains that are first beginning to test the concept in selected stores.
For instance, at Clemens, nine of the chain's 20 stores have pharmacies, but none have drive-through yet because of physical constraints. In-store placements of the departments, done in available space only over the past three years, aren't suitable. None are on corner walls, and the few that are on exterior walls face the storefront and aren't conducive to pass-through windows. "We could run pneumatic tubing, but that's not optimum because of package size and customer perception. We like to have eye-to-eye contact," Shapiro added.
Hannaford has been deliberate in its analysis of the two drive-through windows it equipped three years ago in isolated, but well-established, stores, Polli said, where permits were fairly easy to obtain and retrofitting expense was relatively low. One store has a single lane for cars, and the other has a double lane. Of 150 Hannaford stores, about 100 have pharmacies. Only now, after considerable study, is the chain thinking about adding drive-through to more sites.
Other signs of brightening prospects for supermarket drive-through pharmacy are emerging in different parts of the United States.
Regional operator Riesbeck Food Markets, Saint Clairsville, Ohio, went so far as to structurally change the front of a remodeled store in South Zanesville, Ohio, that made it possible to add a drive-through window to a 750-square-foot pharmacy.
Ukrop's Super Markets, Richmond, Va., recently ordered its second drive-through window from Bavis after evaluating performance of its first in a store near headquarters.
