Hot product categories tracked in drug stores for '89

Drug Store News, Feb 19, 1990 by Alan Miller

Hot product categories tracked in drug stores for '89

For the year ended Dec. 1, 1989, SAMI was tracking drug store movement in 162 product categories. Their annual retail volume grew 5.8 percent over the preceding year to $12.2 billion. Among these categories, 55 were food, 50 were dry grocery/non-foods, and the remaining 57 were health and beauty aids, which accounted for 68.5 percent of the total drug store universe measured by Arbitron/SAMI in drug stores.

Shelf-stable foods showed the highest annual growth rate, 14.8 percent; combined non-food sales rose 6.2 percent, and health and beauty aids advanced 4.1 percent during the 52-week span.

Forty of the 162 categories produced annual drug store sales greater than $100 million, topped by internal analgesics at $814.5 million. The food category with the most sales in drug stores was chocolate candy bars, at $301.8 million. Four other food categories topped the $100 million sales level: measured diet meals ($148.4 million), formula baby food (148.0 million), snack nuts ($116.4 million) and miscellaneous diet foods ($103.3 million). The most important brand in the miscellaneous diet foods category is Ross Laboratories' Ensure.

There were eight dry grocery/non-foods categories with drug store sales greater than $100 million in the period. Dry cell batteries, at $346.8 million, tops the list. This compares with sales of $425.8 million worth of batteries sold through food stores. Ranking second is disposable baby diapers, where the $227.6 million in drug store sales is less than 10 percent of the $2.4 billion sold through food stores.

There are 27 health and beauty aid categories among those on the SAMI roster (in both food and drug stores) where annual drug store sales exceed $100 million. In 15 of these, drug store volume is more than $200 million a year. In three, the drug store sales are higher than half a billion dollars: internal analgesics ($814.5 million), cold remedies ($653.7 million) and eye care products ($508.2 million).

The food category with the highest growth rate in drug stores was measured diet meals, which gained 321.4 percent as the result of dramatic growth for both Slim Fast and Ultra Slim Fast, which grew in tandem rather than one at the expense of the other (in both drug stores and food stores).

There were four additional food categories with 52-week growth rates in drug stores of more than 50 percent. Sales of brewed coffee grew 77.3 percent, though on a modest sales base in comparison with food store sales levels. Sales of packaged diet candies increased 63.6 percent, while volume for both warehoused potato chips and products and warehoused corn snacks rose 57.8 percent and 53.7 percent respectively.

There were nine dry grocery/non-food categories in which drug store dollar volume was 20 percent or more higher in 1989 than in 1988. At the top of the list was insect repellents, with a jump of 54 percent, followed by fireplace logs, bricks and mildew removers, each showing gains of 35-36 percent. High growth rates were also found among coffee filters, air fresheners, adult incontinence products and poly wrap.

Peak growth rates in a 52-week movement of health and beauty aid categories in drug stores were more modest than those found in the fastest-growing food and non-food categories but, in most cases, they occurred in high-volume categories. Among the 57 H&BA categories under scrutiny, the best forward progress was established in the categories of contraceptives and home testing kits, which were recently added to the SAMI roster because of their potential for high growth. Of the more established categories, facial preparations ( 13.2 percent) and suntan lotions-suntan oil ( 13.2 percent) enjoyed the highest expansion rates.