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Walgreens Remains Store Shopped Most Often for Prescription Drugs

Walgreens is gaining in consumer share and remains the retailer shopped most often for prescription drugs with an overall share of 16.1% in January (compared with 15.5% in January 2007), according to BIGresearch’s latest Retail Ratings Report.

Druggist CVS, with a share of 13% (compared with 12.8% in ‘07), and Wal-Mart, with 9.2% of the share (vs. 7.7%), round out the top three.

Wal-Mart’s $4 prescription drug program appears to be successful among consumers who report a household income of less than $50,000. Walgreens still leads in this consumer segment with a share of 16.6%, but Wal-Mart moved into second place with 12.6% share. CVS follows closely behind at 12.1%.

“Wal-Mart pioneered the $4 prescription drug program and forced competitors to respond,” said Pam Goodfellow, senior analyst of BIGresearch. “It’s no surprise that their move is paying off among lower income consumers, especially during turbulent economic conditions.”

Compared with 2007, Wal-Mart experienced positive growth in the prescription drug category among consumers with a household income less than $50,000, with a Consumer Equity Index (CEI) of 130.84. (CEI measures growth in share year over year.) Walgreens also gained consumer share with a CEI of 104.18. CVS lost share with a CEI of 96.70.

Among the top 10 stores for prescription drugs, Costco (54.8%), Target (24.8%), Wal-Mart (19.1%), Walgreens (5.7%) and Kroger (4.0%) maintained the highest Net Promoter Scores (NPS).

The NPS asks customers to rate the likelihood of recommending the store they currently shop most often for Prescription Drugs to a friend on a scale of 0 (Not at All Likely) to 10 (Extremely Likely).