REX marketer Pingue gives creative spark to chain

Drug Store News, Nov 19, 1990

REX marketer Pingue gives creative spark to chain

Don't tell Joe Pingue that Phar-Mor has to run its business like a "traditional" deep discounter. He and his colleagues have built their business by flying in the face of conventional wisdom.

Pingue's efforts as Phar-Mor's senior vp-marketing earned him honors as REX Marketer of the Year, and have helped propel the off-price chain to the top spot in off-price drug store retailing. He played a key role in Phar-Mor's explosive growth in the 1980s by applying a lifetime of broad-based retail experience to a new retail format, and by breaking a few rules about how that business was to be run.

"People said we couldn't do certain things because we were a deep discount operation," he said. "They said we couldn't advertise, and we asked, `why not?'. They said we couldn't have centralized distribution, and again we asked, `why not?'

Pingue and his colleagues obviously proved the traditionalists wrong. The chain is a heavy and consistent advertiser, with full-color circulars, radio spots, billboards, sports event sponsorships and other vehicles all used to promote the chain's low-prices, selection and brand names. Pingue has relied on Phar-Mor's aggressive marketing efforts to make its massive purchasing clout pay off with widely advertised deals and everyday low prices.

Pingue himself is modest about his own contributions at Phar-Mor, and refers to the company's successes as "a team effort." He joined the chain a year after its inception, in 1983, after serving with H.B. Service, a general merchandise distributor in Pittsburgh. "I was in grocery, conventional drug and warehousing before I came here," he said, "but that's not important."

What is important, Pingue adds, is "that I'm fortunate enough to be on this roller coaster."

"The main point is that we've made a pretty good team effort that in eight years we've come this far," Pingue said. "We've pretty much become a national retailer in eight years, which is pretty remarkable."