National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS)’s Post

🔍 Pharmacy Sector Analysis: Broader Trends, Challenges, and the Rite Aid Conundrum The pharmacy sector is undergoing significant transformation. As we gradually move past the pandemic, major players like #CVS and #Walgreens continue to showcase resilience amidst challenges such as inflation, consumer trading down, and competition from giants like #Amazon and #Walmart. Notably, both chains are still recording commendable foot traffic and engagement. https://lnkd.in/gUXy2nsC However, while some thrive, others face a steeper hill. #RiteAid's recent challenges are a testament to the sector's complexities. Rumors of potential bankruptcy, coupled with their strategy to reduce their brick-and-mortar footprint, point to the intricacies of balancing operational costs with consumer needs. Strengths and Weaknesses: CVS: Continues to see robust offline engagement. While foot traffic is slightly lower than the pandemic-boom of 2021, it surpasses 2019 levels, indicating a consistent consumer trust. Walgreens: Despite the retail headwinds, Walgreens holds its ground, further emphasizing the brand's adaptability and strong market position. Rite Aid: Their strategic decision to close underperforming stores hints at a focus on optimization. Yet, the sheer volume of potential closures indicates deeper underlying operational and financial challenges. Conclusion: The pharmacy sector is a dynamic landscape, reflecting broader retail trends and the aftermath of a global health crisis. As competition intensifies, the key for players will be adaptability, innovation, and a keen understanding of evolving consumer needs. Rite Aid's journey, intertwined with these broader trends, serves as a poignant reminder of the sector's challenges and potential paths forward. #RetailTrends #SectorAnalysis #Valuation #appraisal

RxOwnership will be presenting as well as exhibiting. This workshop provides valuable information to help you get started in independent pharmacy ownership. #ncpa #mckesson #healthmart

Where will Walgreens look to close stores? What’s next for the struggling chain and the sluggish pharmacy segment? Join us next week to get all the interesting details. Click the link below to register. #walgreens #pharmacy #retailrealestate #retailtrends

I have noticed this in our area. Not sure why? “Sometimes Seattle earns its gloomy reputation. It was cold, dark, and wet on the February morning I arrived, and I needed a new umbrella.” “I’ve spent the last few months looking into the national meltdown of the American drugstore. As I report in a new feature Fortune published today, the industry-wide problems facing retail pharmacies—chains and independents—are hurting all of us. Big chains are shutting down hundreds of locations; CVS and Walgreens have seen their share prices slump over the past year, while Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy protection in October. Pharmacists citing burnout and overwork are fleeing the industry. For customers, whether we’re trying to buy allergy pills and toothpaste from a locked-up “plexiglass prison” or to fill a basic prescription, many of us are losing access to the front line health care services that pharmacies have long provided. “Pharmacies are in shambles,” Abdikadir Athur, a Seattle-area pharmacist, told me. “It’s unbelievable what’s happening right now.” I went out to Seattle in February to see some of these shambles firsthand. The epicenter of the local pharmacy implosion is Bartell’s, a beloved and storied corner drugstore founded in 1890 and family-owned until 2020—when the Bartell family sold it to the long-struggling Rite Aid. Since filing for bankruptcy protection last year, Rite Aid, trying to claw its way out of debt, has closed down more than a third of Bartell’s 67 locations in the Seattle area. “It’s heartbreaking,” several current and former Seattle residents told me. These closures are contributing to reduced pharmacy access across the city, and the state: Over a period of 13 months ending in early March, 81 pharmacies—more than 8% of all Washington pharmacies—have gone out of business, according to the Washington State Pharmacy Association. The fate of the state’s pharmacies is a microcosm of a crisis that extends far beyond the Pacific Northwest. American drugstores are caught in a perfect storm of factors, including the wide-ranging retail apocalypse, increased e-commerce competition, and the grim shadow of the opioid crisis. “. Fortune @scottmilner

In their March 28th call, Walgreens (WBA) discussed some of the challenges with VillageMD and their closures of 160 stores. Our Expert Insights include a call with a former VP at Walgreens from last July giving their perspective on the challenges of scaling and overall thoughts on the industry. Call Summary: 1. In the expert's opinion, pharmacy reimbursement is very challenging and there are few cost cuts available to offset 2. Believes WBA has ~2,000 too many stores 3. Thinks there will be challenges with scaling VillageMD

This is a very interesting take on this technology, from my understanding it is used as a call to action for related products i.e. it would flash a full screen shot of Red Bull on a drinks cooler etc. thus influencing the shopper into red bull, the idea seems logical but it looks like the implementation isn't working here? maybe the advertising budgets have failed hence no call to action messages, I remember the same thing happening when large media screens were installed into Retail Stores the advertising dried up as brand owners failed to see the return. Maybe there's a better way to use technology e.g. link with loyalty data and mobile phone/ near field tech etc.

How 340B Threatens the Very Existence of Community Pharmacies A follower sent this cartoon that I understand is making the rounds among independent pharmacies in Minnesota. A picture (or a cartoon, in this case) is worth a 1k words. 340B, which delivers billions to the national chain pharmacies through their dominance of contract pharmacies, is an engine in the destruction of the “mom and pop” store. It’s a message that I wish HRSA would hear and act on, given the terrible access implications of the avalanche in closures of community pharmacies. It’s a concern that state legislators should consider as they proceed, headlong, in passing CP bills that act to preserve the covered entity stranglehold on customers who are, in reality, the patients of community pharmacists. It’s a perspective the Genesis court should have heard, but didn’t. It’s an issue the “Gang of 6” didn’t even seek comments on in framing their SUSTAIN Act bill draft. Sustaining community pharmacies was utterly absent from that draft. Time is running out for community pharmacies. #340b #retailpharmacy #communitypharmacy #pharmacists #walgreens #walmart #chainpharmacies #pbms #SUSTAIN #HRSA #independentpharmacies

Happy anniversary to our Verified Pharmacy Program (VPP)! Since 2013, VPP has become the most widely recognized multistate, uniform inspection program accepted by state boards of pharmacy across the nation. Have you used VPP? We'd love to hear your experiences in the comments! Read more about the program in our recent blog post: https://ow.ly/iHvb50Q7ZK0

"The death of the American pharmacy." For the new issue of Fortune, I wrote about Bartell Drugs, the beloved Seattle drugstore that’s slowly dying under RITE AID, and the larger health care crisis sweeping our nation’s pharmacies. What's happening at Bartell's and in Seattle is a microcosm of a much bigger disaster. American drugstores are caught in a perfect storm of factors, including the wide-ranging retail apocalypse. But almost everyone—including big-company CEOs, independent pharmacists, third-party analysts, and bipartisan lawmakers—blames the drug industry middlemen known as PBMs, or pharmacy benefit managers, for squeezing the margins of what pharmacies actually get paid for filling prescriptions. “I’m very concerned about what’s happened in our state, and I definitely think that PBMs have played a role in the closure of some independent pharmacies,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, the Washington Democrat who has cosponsored legislation that would regulate PBMs with Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, told me. “The situation is now very urgent,” she adds. “When you take a pharmacy out of a neighborhood, and they no longer have that in their community, it’s a real problem.” (Representatives for these PBMs, however, argue that they’re looking out for customers, and they’re not to blame for pharmacy closures.) Big chains and small independents are also facing plenty of other, and varied, business challenges. But the cumulative effect is disastrous for all of us. “Pharmacies are in shambles,” as Abdi Athur, a Seattle-area pharmacist, told me. “If even big chains cannot survive—and even CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens are hurting—what do you expect for the small pharmacies?” Read my full feature here, and in the June/July issue of Fortune:

Can Rite Aid Recover?: Last fall, poor ol’ Rite Aid finally succumbed to bankruptcy. It was pretty much the definition of an expected surprise. To get a comprehensive look at the company’s ever-declining fortunes, DCI rummaged around the compnay's numerous bankruptcy filings. Below, you’ll find our review of Rite Aid’s current financial situation, shrinking store footprint, changing relationship with key wholesaler McKesson, surprisingly optimistic projections, and more. Drug Channels has been tracking retail pharmacies’ economic and business challenges—and Rite Aid’s troubles—for many years. Consider this article to be an opportunity for some fact-based analysis to replace your schadenfreude. Read more » © 2006-2024 HMP Omnimedia, LLC d/b/a Drug Channels Institute, an HMP Global Company. All rights reserved. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. #pbm #lifesciences #financial