Weight Loss Adds Up to Niche for Rite Aid
For some consumers, you can forget Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, et al. When they want to lose weight, they’re heading straight for Rite Aid.
Last September, the drugstore chain announced a deal to open in-store medical clinics run by Lindora Medical Clinics. The twist in this case, however, was that consumers visiting the clinics would have the option of participating in medically supervised weight loss programs.
In addition to programs developed for adults seeking to lose weight, the Lindora clinics inside Rite Aid stores also offer tailored programs for adolescent and geriatric weight control.
Now, Rite Aid and Lindora are looking to help New Year resolution-makers with an online program dubbed the Rite Weigh Challenge. The program offers participants the hope that they may lose up to 10 percent of their total weight within 10 weeks.
Participants in the program have access to sample menus and daily action programs to help them achieve their goals. There are live online seminars and recorded audio messages to inspire consumers to stick with it.
In stores, consumers can join the Rite Weigh Challenge and pickup a free travel size planner that offers an outline of the 10-week weight loss plan along with an exercise plan.
Upon completing the program, participants can sign up in a sweepstakes program that will provide five winners their choice of a $500 Rite Aid Gift Card, a $500 SpaFinder Gift Certificate or a one-year membership to Bally Total Fitness.
Discussion Questions: What are your thoughts on Rite Aid’s weight loss program initiative and what it means for the drugstore chain in its competition
with others in the retail pharmacy space? Should Rite Aid look to aggressively expand in-store clinics offering medically supervised weight loss programs?
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This will likely be a short-term success. The timing is right for this type of program as New Year’s is typically a time when consumers make resolutions they probably won’t keep, i.e. stop smoking, drinking, better diet, more exercise, etc. But the commitment for many to diet and exercise tends to be cyclical.
Many retailers, especially convenience store owners, can recall the healthy snack food trend they experienced just two years ago. They lined shelves with baked chips and Snackwells cookies, and customers bought them…for about a month. Then sales died down and sales of rich, creamy ice cream and meat snacks picked right back up.
I agree that weight loss, obesity and fitness are big business, but it’s going to take a lot more than a recorded audio message to get customers to adhere to a diet plan and stick to it for a prolonged period of time.
The devil may well be in the details and participation may well tail off sooner rather than later but in the meantime, if it doesn’t cost anything, gets the store some extra footfall and brownie points, why not?
Theoretically, this sounds great. As Ryan states, “the devil is in the details.” How tailored is the program? How well do the “experts” listen? What follow-up is involved? What’s the motivation? How well do online resources work? It will be interesting to watch.
I would bet that the supervised program will involve supplements and food items (especially snack bars) that will increase the trip velocity of participants to their corner Rite Aid drug store. Brilliant strategy to increase shopping visits and impulse sales…
If I read the press release correctly, the free program is a set of materials and resources. The Lindora “medically supervised” program isn’t part of the deal. So I suspect Rite Aid will profit nicely from the products purchased in the store pursuant to program recommendations and coupons. Lindora will probably sign up a percentage of the participants for the real program, and everyone will be happy, except maybe for the majority of participants that don’t lose much weight.
I’ll play the cynic and say that dieting is big business and Rite Aid is smart to try to more closely tie dieting behavior to their store sales. The highest profitability comes not through one diet, however, but through the endless variety of diets people try in their pursuit of weight loss. How Rite Aid deals with that will be interesting.
The devil is in the details. The program ought to be a great success now, while thoughts of reform are uppermost in everyone’s minds, but what happens by March? And, if the program is a success, how much overhead are drug chains willing to add in pursuit of customer loyalty? It’s hard enough to find somebody to run down your prescription for you, let alone tailor a diet or monitor your caloric intake.
Obesity is the new smoking. More and more Americans are overweight, so any retailer’s attempt to address the problem appeals to millions. Rite Aid can’t lose.
Weight loss, obesity and fitness are big business. And in 2007 those areas will become an even bigger business. All pharmacy chains are looking to give consumers additional reasons to come into their stores. Whether it is a wellness clinic or a diabetes center or on staff nurse practitioners; every retailer is searching for the differentiator. How Rite Aid translates this idea into a satisfying experience will determine the success of the program.