CVS really knows how to sell its talking points. The drugstore chain, now expanding in the Windy City, gave a tour of a newly converted store in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood yesterday, getting impressive “value” in a Chicago Sun-Times article today.
“CVS spices up the drugstore,” declared the Sun-Times, which reported that “The first Osco store in Chicago to be converted to a CVS drugstore showcases CVS’ priorities: Appeal to ethnic tastes, attract female shoppers with specialty cosmetics, and give the pharmacist time to get to know patients.”
Paragraph three explained the chain’s “loyalty program” in detail: “The ExtraCare program lets shoppers ‘earn’ coupons worth 2 percent on every purchase they make, and $1 for every two prescriptions filled. Shoppers get the savings in ‘Extra Bucks’ coupons once every three months.” Could CVS have said it better?
“The re-do lets women, who are generally shorter than men, see across the store in one sweeping glance,” continued the Sun-Times. (Our personal experience confirms this: women are generally shorter than men.) But while “Women account for 82 percent of CVS’ shoppers,” the split in Edgewater is half and half, so CVS is trying to sell to both genders there. Ergo, it has “kept intact the most popular items for men,” and “tripled the size of the beauty and cosmetics department.”
And on it went, from CVS’ “particular pride in its exclusive products” (such as “Cristophe’s hydrating shampoo at $6.99”), to its stocking of “ethnic products” (“Jumex apple nectar, Frijoles Negros beans and Tres Flores hair gel” among them).
Beans. Yum.
