Several chains vie for frequent visits from Texas students

Drug Store News, Jan 22, 1990 by Elizabeth Richardson

Several chains vie for frequent visits from Texas students

AUSTIN, Texas - The eyes of Texas students can look upon this large market when selecting a drug store. With eight chains plus independents here, students have an opportunity to shop around for the best deals.

College students make up anywhere from 15-40% of a store's business, retailers told DrSN. Most of the chains service University of Texas (UT) students who live off-campus, since they are located off of "the drag," which runs adjacent to the university. Students on-campus shop with independents nearby or the UT Student Health Center Pharmacy.

"Students really use very few prescriptions, and when they do, they can get them on campus," Joan Cooper, a store manager for Walgreen's said.

Most of the student consumers are "impulse buyers," and make frequent trips, rather than one large shopping spree, store managers said. Many stores have aisles set up just for that purpose, with trial sizes and packaged items to entice their young customers.

"These are more economically-minded consumers," Keith Amelung, assistant manager for Drug Emporium explained. "They don't have the cash to lay out for larger pruchases and they buy things mostly on an `as-needed' basis."

Amelung explained that the trial size section of the store moves very well, but with some HBAs, like deodorant and shampoo, students will buy the larger sizes because they last longer.

Karen Butler, a Revco store manager, said that household items and small electronics are big items, especially at the beginning of the school year. "They come in and buy everything when they move in - bathroom supplies, clocks, hangers, soaps," she said.

Paper goods and school supplies are great movers in almost every store. "We buy school supplies constantly," Cooper said. "We fill it in and order every week."

Pharmacists in stores agreed that birth control pills were the top selling prescirption among college-aged students. Condoms and pregnancy tests headed the list under family planning items.

Stores varied in their top OTC items. Some slated aspirin and pain relievers at the top of the list, while others contended cough and cold products and contact lens solutions move pretty regularly among student shoppers.

"Our cough/cold products move quite a bit, especially right before finals," Virgil Hammond, a Drug Emporium pharmacist said. "They get run down and tired and develop colds and sniffles, and we'll try to clear them up in a hurry."

Stocking sitmulants

However, all stores said they had to stock up on stimulants such as No-Doz and Vivarin to keep from "getting wiped out during finals."

"We see a large amount sell around late October and early November - right around mid-term time," Dru Shipman, Eckerd pharmacist said. "The sales pick up again in mid-December during finals."

Cosmetics and fragrances continue to be big departments for the stores.

"This is our biggest HBA area," Drug Emporium's Amelung said. "Most of our business in that line is the college-aged woman."

And, with any growing, young adult, food is always a main item on the list.

"Canned goods do extremely well for us," Walgreen's Cooper said. "Things like Wolf Chili and beef stew, where they can just take it out of the can and heat it, are big. And they drink lots of orange juice!"

Only one chain, Walgreen's, advertises in the university's newspaper, The Daily Texan. Revco "advertises" by letting the university's pharmacy students intern in their stores during their last semester.

As in many college towns, some stores lose up to 20% of their business during the Christmas holidays. "Austin is an unusual market," Drug Emporium's Hammond said. "With any type of holiday the whole city tends to empty out, just because the population is students. But most of them are back in the store within a few days."