Skip navigation

Heath Hub

UNTIL FAIRLY RECENTLY, THE SUPERMARKET PHARMACY was viewed as little more than a prescription dispensary. As mainstream retailers integrate wellness products and services, however, the department is taking on a much larger, and more crucial, role. It's rare these days that a supermarket opens without a pharmacy being a central department, and a lot of health and wellness programs are anchored in the

UNTIL FAIRLY RECENTLY, THE SUPERMARKET PHARMACY was viewed as little more than a prescription dispensary. As mainstream retailers integrate wellness products and services, however, the department is taking on a much larger, and more crucial, role.

“It's rare these days that a supermarket opens without a pharmacy being a central department, and a lot of health and wellness programs are anchored in the pharmacy,” noted Cathy Polley, vice president of pharmacy services at the Food Marketing Institute. “All of our members are looking at complementary opportunities that bring together nutritional and pharmacy needs and help blend the customer's food-drug choices.”

Retail executives are realizing that the pharmacy is home to experts trained in the wellness field. This opens up the possibility of making pharmacy an education destination within the store. But not enough supermarkets see the potential, according to some observers.

“It's starting to be discussed and to happen,” said Bruce Kneeland, president of Pharmacy-Connections, a consulting firm. “But there's an awful lot more talk than reality.”

Part of the problem is that retailers don't quite know what pharmacies are capable of. In 2007, according to FMI, the median supermarket pharmacy dispensed 126 prescriptions per day, had weekly prescription sales of $46,000 and accounted for 9.4% of total-store revenues. Both the number of scripts and percentage of sales have remained flat for the last five years.

High-volume stores often have pharmacies less productive than these averages, accounting for barely 1% to 2% of total-store sales, according to Robert Gorland, vice president at Matthew P. Casey & Associates, which specializes in supermarket and pharmacy feasibility studies.

“I think it's one of the most underpromoted, undermarketed departments in the whole supermarket,” he said. “It's really a stepchild that gets minimal store supervision and no cross-marketing except for HBA being across from it.”

The challenges start at the top. An organizational separation exists between the pharmacy and the rest of the store, which makes integration difficult. “A lot of pharmacists do not report to the store manager, and that's a mistake,” said Gorland.

At Sweetbay Supermarket, Tampa, Fla., the pharmacy is included as part of the merchandising and operations team, along with HBC and grocery, and all report to the senior vice president of operations.

“That's a big leveraging point for us,” observed Pam Heath, the chain's director of pharmacy.

Sweetbay hosts health screenings, often during its Health and Wellness Days. They are promoted through the chain's intranet and employee newsletter, through signage and information at the front of the store, checkout and customer service, and in the store circular. The pharmacy captures email addresses of those screened.

Meanwhile, pharmacist-led store tours and presentations focus on specific disease states or nutrition topics and highlight the store's Guiding Stars program, which helps consumers navigate healthier choices.

“[These events] help connect us to the supermarket,” said Heath.

For the last six to nine months, Delhaize-owned Sweetbay has been sampling healthy foods during Health and Wellness Days.

“Not only are we testing and talking about health, but we're providing [customers] with foods to support good health,” said Heath.

Indianapolis, Ind.-based Marsh Supermarkets is another chain that is working to integrate the pharmacy and the rest of the store under a single wellness umbrella.

“We want to drive the image of health and wellness in the supermarket and get people to think about the pharmacy services we offer,” said Chris Duffy, vice president of pharmacy.

Recent programs have included a cholesterol screening that attracted more than 100 people, blood glucose, blood pressure and bone density checks, flu shots and handwashing clinics. The chain has appealed to expectant and new mothers with free prenatal vitamin programs and breast pump rentals, and is planning a childhood obesity program with a local health center.

In addition, Marsh pharmacists have handed out samples of organic apples and oranges, and the chain has organized pharmacy-centered community events, including sponsorship of Geared for Health, which collects used sports equipment for lower-income children. There's also a twice-annual collection of outdated medicines. This spring's med intake brought in over 12,000 vials.

Buehler Food Markets, Wooster, Ohio, recently hired a licensed and registered dietitian and certified wellness educator, Ellen Homlong, who reports to director of pharmacy and health services Verne Mounts. Mounts notes that the lack of time-saving technology in the pharmacy, along with the demands of filling discount prescriptions, means pharmacists are not often free to interact much with customers.

“My best entry right now is our certified educator,” he said. “That's her sole purpose; she's not chained to the pharmacy desk to fill prescriptions.”

Homlong has teamed up with the corporate chef to hold in-store presentations and cooking classes for specific health conditions, among other initiatives.

Buehler has placed a lifesize standee of Homlong in a couple of stores and probably will expand to more locations. The standee has a Plexiglass shelf where brochures are available, and includes information on how customers can make an appointment to talk about nutritional needs.

To promote its pharmacy, Modesto, Calif.-based Save Mart Supermarkets launched a radio advertising campaign in March called “Ask the Save Mart Pharmacist” on Fresno station KMJ. In the daily 30-second spots, director of pharmacy Jeff Herr answers questions, followed by an ad from Save Mart's partner in the campaign, Kellogg's, featuring one of its healthier products. The campaign also runs on the KMJ website — where customers can email questions to Save Mart for a response — as well as in-store.

“Our pharmacy department is working with all of the other departments on health and wellness,” said Michele Snider, Save Mart's senior director of pharmacy. In addition to the radio campaign, initiatives have included displaying healthful products near the pharmacy, sending pharmacists to community events such as health fairs, and in-store tours, health meter demonstrations and events with the chain's nutritionist.

Making people aware of the pharmacy and its role in health and wellness is critical — and an essential part of that is to get the pharmacist out into the store.

“Pharmacists are considered one of the most trusted professionals out there,” said Gorland. “But often the pharmacists don't get out to meet and greet, they stay in the cage. There's a failure to get out on the floor and do cross-marketing.

Kneeland believes store design contributes to the problem.

“The physical facility is a huge hindrance to the reality of this,” he said, noting that getting to the front of the pharmacy counter may require a 30-foot walk. “It's not a big deal, but it's a psychological big deal.”

Several chains encourage employees to participate in their wellness programs, which not only has health benefits, but marketing benefits as well. The employee wellness campaign at Buehler features a “Know Your Numbers” theme. Once screened, employees can meet with the dietitian for nutritional counseling, and if they have a good experience they are likely to tell their friends and family.

“Anything I do, I try to get buy-in by the employees,” Mounts said. “We have 2,500 people in our organization and they're probably our best marketers.”

Stores are starting to see results from these integration efforts. Marsh's pharmacy saw a rising prescription count last year, after experiencing three years of declining numbers.

“Sales are not where I want them to be, but we're moving the dial,” Duffy said. “It's making a difference.”

Sweetbay has recorded double-digit growth in pharmacy since it began increasing its marketing initiatives. Heath believes the store's health screenings are boosting overall store traffic as well as bringing customers into the pharmacy.

“This helps promote the one-stop-shopping concept to our current customers,” she said.

Save-Mart, too, has noticed an uptick in new pharmacy customers since it started its radio advertising and other programs.

Effective marketing is key because in-store pharmacies face intense competition. According to IMS Health figures in FMI's Supermarket Pharmacy Trends 2008, supermarkets in 2007 accounted for 14% of prescriptions dispensed by all pharmacies and 11% of pharmacy retail sales in the United States. From 2003 to 2007, the number of supermarket pharmacies declined 0.6%, vs. growth of 20.4% for mass merchant pharmacies and 5.9% for chain drug stores; the number of prescriptions dispensed grew 4% in supermarkets, compared with 15% for mass merchant and chain pharmacies.

“A lot of markets are extremely overstored,” explained Gorland. If a chain does open a pharmacy — which he does not recommend for all locations — it needs to market it heavily. “A lot of stores have a build-it-and-they-will-come mentality.”

But grocery chains that do promote their pharmacies, making them the focal point of health and wellness, can see significant sales gains, and have a better chance of differentiating themselves from competitors.

“Supermarkets are uniquely positioned because we can help the consumer focus on nutritional and drug choices and help them blend those purchases in the store,” FMI's Polley stressed. “No other retailer is in a position to do this.”

GOOD ADVICE

  • Position the pharmacist as the face of health and wellness and give customers a chance to interact with pharmacy personnel throughout the store.
  • Maximize communication between pharmacy and other department managers to spur cross-marketing.
  • Promote the pharmacy to three constituencies: existing store customers, new customers and employees.

Tools and Techniques

A multifaceted approach to integrating the pharmacy into the overall health and wellness program includes:

In-store events: screenings, condition-specific tours, immunizations and flu shots, nutritional counseling, health meter demonstrations, cooking and health classes.

Educational information: shelf tags calling out foods that address particular health issues, health-related brochures, condition-specific recipes.

Sampling and couponing: distributing healthy food samples on health screening days, placing displays of nutritious foods near the pharmacy, offering coupons to customers who transfer prescriptions or participate in tours.

Community events: collecting expired meds, being active in local health fairs.

Marketing: in-store (signage, P.A. announcements), external (store circulars, radio spots).