Supermarkets, particularly those with pharmacies, are adding more products for at-home testing for diabetes, cholesterol, pregnancy and other medical conditions.
Last year alone, the category's volume swelled 21% to $38.6 million in the food channel, according to Information Resources Inc., Chicago.
Grocery stores snare 20.6% of the category, while mass merchandisers take 31.6% and drug stores command a whopping 59.9% of sales, according to ACNielsen, Schaumberg, Ill.
Grocery stores snare 20.6% of the category, while mass merchandisers take 31.6% and drug stores command a whopping 59.9% of sales, according to ACNielsen, Schaumberg, Ill.
"People are getting their prescriptions [at the pharmacy], so it makes sense to provide the home health care equipment they need," said John Beckner, director of pharmacy for Ukrop's Super Markets, Richmond, Va. "Also, if we have a wide variety of those products, they will elect to get other things they need here."
Giant Food in Landover, Md.; Safeway in Pleasanton, Calif.; and Albertson's in Boise, Idaho, are among several large chains stocking more of the items, particularly for diabetics, said manufacturers.
Diabetes care product sales are booming at most retail outlets, said suppliers. Nearly 16 million Americans have diabetes, according to the American Diabetic Association, based in Chicago, and 14 cents of every health-care dollar is spent combating the disease.
Blood-glucose test strip sales jumped about 17% during the 52 weeks ending in March 1998, compared with the prior-year period, while sales of blood-sugar test kits rose 11.7%, according to ACNielsen.
Tests to detect urinary-tract infections are also gaining more space in supermarkets. Polymedica, in Golden, Colo., is selling more of its Azo UTI tests through Winn-Dixie Stores, Ralphs Grocery Co., Safeway and Minyard Food Stores, among others. Most of the kits are sold in stores with pharmacies, added Mike Edmonds, Polymedica's national sales manager. "Because of the nature of the problem, customers go to the pharmacist."
The manufacturer and retailers partner for two- to-four-week introduction offers, Edmonds said. Polymedica also is giving these products more exposure with a $2 million advertising campaign in leading women's magazines.
Although many supermarkets have yet to carry them, sales of drug-testing kits, usually for parents to test their children at home, are picking up in drug stores and mass-merchandising outlets. Interested parents are likely to buy the single-use test first in drug stores and then at supermarkets for subsequent purchases because of the convenience, according to Niquette Hunt, vice president of marketing at ChemTrak, Sunnyvale, Calif.
ChemTrak manufactures the Parent's Alert home drug-testing kit, which retails for about $49.95. Parent's Alert has been on the market for about six months and is sold in units of American Stores Co., CVS, Rite Aid Corp. and other drug chains.
"We want this to be commonplace in this country, so parents don't feel guilty or ashamed to buy it. They can just put it in their cart like thermometers and Band-Aids," said Karen Long, ChemTrak's director of counseling.
Although home-testing kids for illegal drug use is controversial, 80% of parents said they believe it is appropriate if they suspect their kid has developed a habit, according to ChemTrak research.
Although supermarkets will probably never grab a huge share of the home testing kit business, said Rick Taylor, director of trade marketing and sales planning at Lifescan, their sales are "more productive than the average store's." Lifescan manufactures glucose-testing kits.
"Over the last two years, we've seen many of the grocery chains taking a much bigger interest. They're doing this by focusing advertising, targeting specific customers and disease states," Taylor said.
