CVS Health (CVS) wants to be more than a place where you pick up your prescription while maybe buying a candy bar or a soda as you do it. The company has recast its pharmacies as community health centers, adding Minute Clinics that can handle non-urgent healthcare needs and testing concepts including healthcare concierges to help customers navigate a challenging landscape.
This slow and steady evolution essentially began in February 2014, when the Woonsocket, R.I., company stopped selling cigarettes. That move cost the company hundreds of millions in profitable sales, and some thought it might lead to the chain dropping alcohol and candy from its stores. That was never the case, a CVS spokesperson wrote in an email to The Motley Fool at the time of the removal.
"The decision to stop selling tobacco products underscores our role in the evolving health care system. Smoking is the leading cause of premature illness and death in the United States. Unlike those other products, which are OK in moderation, no amount of tobacco use is safe," wrote CVS spokesman Danielle Marcus.
Now, CVS is continuing its evolution into a healthcare company with a new line of products.
Image source: CVS.
CVS Wants to Reach Aging Americans
As a health-care company, CVS fully understands that targeting older customers makes good sense. It has done that with some of its in-store services, and it will grow those efforts with a new line of six home-health-care products aimed squarely at older Americans.
"Rooted in customer insights and specifically designed to meet the needs of the aging, caregivers, and those living with disabilities, these bathroom safety and mobility products merge function and design," the company said in a news release.
"The products were developed in collaboration with Michael Graves Design, pioneers of the Design for All movement, which leverages the power of design to improve people's everyday lives."
The product line includes a variety of products ranging from comfort-grip canes and easy-fold travel walkers to convertible shower chairs and 3-in-1 comfort commodes. Most of the line can be purchased on the company's website and will be hitting shelves through March at more than 6,000 CVS Pharmacy retail locations nationwide.
CVS Sees a Huge Market
As the American population ages, that creates new markets for CVS. The company has designed these new products with that in mind.
"There will be more than 70 million Americans ages 65 and older by 2030, along with millions of caregivers and other customers who need these types of products because of illness or while recuperating from an accident," CVS Vice President Brenda Lord said in a statement.
"By filling an unmet need for functional, but beautifully designed products, we aim to help improve the everyday lives of those who rely on these tools and who are seeking a more premium and customized market offering."
CVS conducted "extensive in-home research ... with end users, caregivers, and clinicians to guide the creation of the new line."
That research showed demand for "products with improved usability, and an aesthetically pleasing, minimalistic style, which is reflected in the creation of the CVS Health by Michael Graves Design portfolio."
