DULUTH, Ga. (Jan. 13) Shoppers are looking for enhanced personalization and more choices in how they interact with retailers through social media, according to a recent survey conducted by global technology company NCR. The NCR survey polled more than 400,000 consumers regarding their experiences with social media and how retailers can better serve their needs.

"Social media is an exciting way for retailers to engage customers and build communities of interest around their brand," said Sundeep Kapur, director, strategic marketing, NCR Corp. "The survey results demonstrate that retailers who present a holistic understanding of their customers and deliver more personalized, relevant offers through social media can open new revenue channels and see a greater return on investment through social media."

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MINNEAPOLIS (Jan. 6) Free-standing insert coupon activity increased 8% during 2009 to more than 272 billion coupons dropped versus the previous year, according to Marx Promotion Intelligence, a division of TNS Media Intelligence. FSI coupons are a vehicle for coupon redemption and product exposure. This activity level is the highest yearly coupons dropped observed during the past decade, surpassing the second highest annual coupons dropped of 257 billion achieved in 2007.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Jan. 14) HealthyPharmacies.org announced Thursday a series of store-of-the-future-type pilot programs that will be showcased here beginning this summer. The new nonprofit is working to design and build turnkey wellness centers in retail pharmacy locations. Each center will include an educational component with both live and DVD-based classes, as well as healthcare professionals on hand to offer advice and guidance and to supervise educational events. The centers will be staffed by a variety of healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, qualified graduate school students, advice nurses, aestheticians, nutritionists and herbalists. Most of the wellness centers will also feature a variety of high margin natural products including supplements, body care products, beauty products and foods as well as health related books. Continued, next column.

FULLERTON, Calif. (Jan. 12) Albertsons, a Supervalu company, on Monday launched a new online community, AlbertsonsWellbeing.com, that will provide users with tools to help them make easy, value-driven choices for healthier living. Albertsons Wellbeing was developed to ensure that its community discussion forums, well-being tips and recipes help users discover accurate nutritional and supplement information.

"We recognize that our customers are busy, and healthier choices can sometimes fall by the wayside," stated Stephanie Martin, Albertsons director of communications and public affairs. "We designed the Albertsons Wellbeing site to be a daily resource, where this community will enable each other to make food, cooking and healthy choices that are smart for themselves and their families."

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A lengthy story in a January Washington Post story and a slew of other recent newspaper stories and televised news reports that are beginning to permeate mainstream media outlets are reporting that pharmacy is about a lot more than counting pills into bottles. Led by such groups as the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association, the retail pharmacy profession has waged a years-long campaign to educate lawmakers, health-policy experts, health-plan payers and the public at large about its increasingly critical role as frontline healthcare provider. Finally, that message appears to be getting through. Pharmacists Online® understands

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HealthyPharmacies.org, Continued.

HealthyPharmacies.org's focus is to help pharmacies foster wellness through healthy messaging. The nonprofit will host 23 wellness messages that are designed to fit on in-store signs on its Web site. New messages from healthcare practitioners and nonprofit organizations will be added every month.

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