CVS Pharmacy Announces its Now Selling Fresh Foods
WOONSOCKET, RI - CVS Pharmacy, one of the largest drugstore chains in the U.S., is adding a new category to its inventory: fresh foods.
According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the chain has added a new brick to its road of healthier intentions - having cut off selling all tobacco items nationwide last September. Now it is adding a host of fresh foods and healthy snacks to its store content.
The report stated that company executives made the latest changes as a result of customer demand.
"Consumers used to eat three meals a day, and now they tend to be snacking through the day, and they're really looking for a convenient location which gives them access to healthier foods," CVS Executive Vice President Helena Foulkes told Crain.
The company also mentioned that this move could help spike sales outside the pharmacy that have dropped since tobacco sales ceased, adding fresh and refrigerated foods to about 500 of its 7,800 stores throughout the U.S., according to the report. CVS will also be adding healthier snacks chainwide, replacing the prime real estate front-store chips and candies with nuts and healthier items, moving the less nutritional ones to the back of the stores.
This is far from the first drug or supply store to venture into a fresh food and grocery format. As we’ve previously reported, 7-Eleven and Shoppers Drug Mart have both gone to the fresher side of sales, as well as Walgreens, Rite Aid, and more. Adding fresh foods and produce to inventory provides healthy items to a growing customer demand, as well as provides customers with a more “one-stop-shop” situation with more to buy in one location.
CVS Pharmacy is further incorporating fresh food to up its focus on the Hispanic demographic. According to Crain, the drugstore chain began adding groceries to select areas with few grocery options a few years back, and is now adding a dozen stores in the Miami area called CVS/Pharmacy Y Mas as the next step to those earlier trials.
Keep checking in with AndNowUKnow to see how this new strategy plays out.
