Rite Aid’s Focus on Health and Wellness: What Homeopathy Can Learn
By Ray Petrick, VP of Sales, Boiron USA
The U.S. health care market is evolving from an expensive, volume acute-care model to a cost-conscious, value model that emphasizes the prevention of health problems. Retailers such as chain drugstores and mass merchandisers are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this shift, and thus are entering the health and wellness retail strategy. Major retailers are entering the market armed with retail clinics staffed by nurse practitioners and nutritionists in addition to pharmacists. By incorporating or expanding health and wellness programs that improve consumers’ lives, these retailers are realizing benefits like increased foot traffic, increased sales growth, improved cross-selling, brand recognition, and enhanced customer experience.
One retailer that has been out in front with a health and wellness strategy is Rite Aid. As consumers increasingly focus on self-care, they seek a balance between traditional health and holistic wellness. Rite Aid will become a whole health destination that treats mind, body, and spirit. This summer, the national retailer announced it will focus on meeting the health and wellness needs of their customers with new ‘‘better for you’’ merchandising that will include a wider assortment of clean products. Rite Aid is launching its new Pharmacy of the Future that will include enhanced customer engagement with pharmacists, who will be whole-being health advocates focused on helping customers with holistic health and wellness solutions.
Rite Aid recently launched a new marketing campaign that highlights a natural approach while showing the importance of the pharmacist. View the Rite Aid new advertisement here:
While Rite Aid is just one of the major U.S. retailers adopting the “health and wellness strategy,” they are clearly leading with their vision to evolve their business from a traditional retail drugstore chain to a modern, pharmacy-first destination for whole-being health.
AAHP and its members should look forward to great things to come from Rite Aid, and the association congratulates Derrick Shaffer, category manager at Rite Aid, for receiving AAHP’s Integrative Medicine Award. This honor recognizes a retailer executive or retail organization that promotes and sells products that encompass a broad range of therapeutic approaches to achieve optimal health and wellness for consumers seeking to participate actively in their health care. Shaffer accepted the award during the virtual opening reception of AAHP’s Summit, Sept. 23, 2020.
Learn more about Shaffer and the Integrative Medicine Award here.