Shoppers Drug Mart is redefining health and wellness through pharmacy, health services, and yes, fresh food offerings.
Six decades after the first store was built by Murray Koffler, Shoppers Drug Mart has grown into a network of more than 1,300 stores where Canadians can pick up everything from medications and personal care products to convenience and grocery items like milk and eggs. As it continues to expand fresh and advance its digital category, Shoppers is well positioned to live up to the company’s purpose: helping Canadians live life well.
A run to the neighbourhood Shoppers Drug Mart is, for most Canadians, a routine as familiar and comfortable as a drive-through for donuts and coffee or a Saturday-night huddle to watch hockey.
Since Murray Koffler opened the first store six decades ago, Shoppers Drug Mart has become a go-to for millions of consumers in need of medications, beauty and personal care products, and convenience items.
Geography provides one good reason for this preferred retailer status. With more than 1,300 stores under the Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix banners – covering a total of almost 19 million square feet – in all provinces and territories, there’s a Shoppers pharmacy within a fiveminute drive of virtually every household in the country. Extended store hours, with select stores operating 24/7 or until midnight, add another layer of convenience.
“People come to our stores for all of our solutions to their shopping needs”
Jeff Leger
But in the world of community retail, where customers demand one-stop shop-and-dash but don’t want to pay a premium for convenience, it’s Shoppers’ ability to satisfy a broad range of needs while consistently delivering value that has won the loyalty of Canadian consumers.
“People come to our stores for all of our solutions to their shopping needs,” says Jeff Leger, president of Shoppers Drug Mart. “Canadians know that when they come to Shoppers, they’ll have access to a wide selection of products in a broad range of categories. In addition to being a community pharmacy, Shoppers Drug Mart is also a great convenience brand.”
So convenient that today, a Shoppers customer can fill a medication prescription, buy a prestige-brand lipstick along with a mass-market eyeliner, stock up on toilet paper and household cleaning products, try their luck with a lottery ticket, mail out a parcel, grab a gift card on the way to a birthday party, and pick up some milk and eggs.
Customers in certain locations can also pile their shopping carts with fresh produce like lettuce, grape tomatoes – regular or organic – avocados and mushrooms. In the refrigerated section, they’ll also find vacuum-packed uncooked steak and chicken, Beyond Beef burger patties and oven-ready barbecue pork ribs.
“We’ve been selling food for decades – convenience items like milk, butter, bread as well as dry and canned grocery items,” says Leger. “But we knew there was also a role we could play in fresh food offerings. With our acquisition by Loblaw, we found a great fit with our goal of expanding into fresh.”
That goal is part of a larger vision at Shoppers Drug Mart: to redefine health and wellness for Canadians through a retail model that makes taking care of body, mind, and soul as easy as a quick run to the nearest Shoppers Drug Mart.
Elevating health through advances in pharmacy services
So what does health and wellness look like when viewed through the visionary lens at Shoppers Drug Mart? A quick glance at the company’s offerings of products and services points to a singular fact: the constructs of health and wellness are as varied and complex as the country’s demographic make-up – and Shoppers has responded with comprehensive and innovative solutions.
Within pharmacy, Shoppers has taken a leadership role during the pandemic by making it easier for Canadians to get access to COVID-19 vaccines and testing. This spring, as families were getting ready for March break, a number of Shoppers Drug Mart stores across Ontario hosted COVID vaccine clinics for children aged five to 11.
Even as pharmacists in different parts of the country continue to be restricted by their provincially-regulated scopes of practices, Shoppers has forged ahead with a pharmacy strategy that goes beyond dispensing medications to focus on delivering health services.
“In addition to helping Canadians with their everyday health needs – such as filling prescriptions to help customers manage their chronic disease – we’ve layered on services such as medication reviews and prescribing for minor ailments in provinces where these are allowed by professional regulators,” says Anthony Spina, senior vice president, pharmacy, at Shoppers Drug Mart. “I see pharmacists’ role evolving in the future where they really are playing a key role at point of care.”
Shoppers is already building the infrastructure for this future. Spina says all Shoppers Drug Mart locations now have patient counselling rooms, with new stores boasting at least two such spaces.
“Our pharmacy model is evolving in a very big and exciting way,” says Spina. “We know Canadians are facing a lot of diagnosed and undiagnosed acute diseases, and we know there’s a greater awareness today of the importance of being proactive in your health and wellness. Everything we’re doing in pharmacy addresses the question of how we can elevate the healthcare system.”
Holistic Health
From dispensing medications to helping patients manage their chronic disease, from in-person and virtual primary care to medical cannabis delivery and diet counselling, Shoppers Drug Mart has expanded its services over the last 60 years to address a wide spectrum of health and wellness needs.
This evolution from pure pharmacy to holistic health and wellness services provider ties into the company’s connected health strategy, says Sarah Ahmad, senior vice president, health and wellness, at Shoppers Drug Mart.
“What we mean by that is the ability for Shoppers and Loblaw to help people live life well by connecting them to the right care at the right time,” she says.
These connections, which have been taking place every day over the last six decades through Shoppers’ pharmacies, are increasingly also being formed online and on the go through the PC Health app, launched two years ago by Loblaw. Available for download from the Apple store and Google Play, the mobile app gives Shoppers and Loblaw customers access to healthcare providers, medication management, health programs, and health and wellness products customized to their health profile.
PC Health users can chat virtually with a care navigator, nurse or dietitian or consult with a doctor – a general practitioner or a specialist such as a dermatologist. They can get help with their diet or sign up for an exercise program.
App users also earn loyalty points, through Shoppers and Loblaw’s PC Optimum program, when they use the PC Health app to connect to health and wellness products and services.
“The amount of downloads and user engagement is extremely promising, and it confirms to us that we are delivering the health and wellness support and services that our customers want and need,” she says.
PC Health continues to add on services and features. Ahmad is unable to confirm at present if there are plans to use PC Health to support fresh offerings at Shoppers, such as through a meal planning feature, but adds that “there’s more to come, and it will all flow through PC Health.
“I truly believe it will be the digital front door to health and wellness for all Canadians,” she says. “The ability to go to one app and find the care you need – whether that means connecting you with a nurse or a dietitian through telehealth, or helping you find dental care near you and having all these interactions reflected in real-time in your health profile – that’s the future that we’re working on today.”
Whole health beyond the pharmacy
The company’s health and wellness offerings go way beyond its pharmacy department. Three years ago, Shoppers rolled out an online nutrition service where customers in Ontario can meet with a registered dietitian through videoconference or phone for a comprehensive assessment of their eating habits. The dietitian creates a personalized nutrition plan and helps patients stay on track through follow-up consultations.
Shoppers has also opened managed medical clinics, which combine primary care and family practice in one location. From the first site in Toronto, the network of Health Clinic by Shoppers has expanded to six clinics in Ontario, with plans to keep adding more.
More health services clinics – over 300 in total – will soon be added to the Shoppers portfolio. The company announced recently it had agreed to an $845-million deal to buy Lifemark Health Group, which provides physiotherapy, massage and occupational therapy, and other ancillary health services in more than 300 locations across the country.
In British Columbia, where an acute shortage of doctors is putting pressure on 9-1-1 and other frontline emergency healthcare services, Shoppers Drug Mart has partnered with virtual care provider Maple to give customers access to provincial health plan-covered telehealth appointments – right in the store.
Shoppers also entered the medical cannabis space in 2020, as an online platform that gives patients access to a wide range of products from more than 20 licensed cannabis brands. Backed by a Shoppers cannabis care team that provides qualified healthcare advice, the service offers same-day delivery service to help ensure continuous and reliable access to medically-necessary cannabis.
Shoppers Drug Mart Through the Years
1941
Murray Koffler succeeds his father to run two Koffler’s drug stores in Toronto.
1962
Murray Koffler opens a 4,000 sq ft drug store at the Shoppers World plaza in Toronto. The company’s first Life Brand products hit the shelves.
1968
Shoppers Drug Mart expands in Ontario and merges with Plaza Drug Stores. The deal brings the total number of stores to 52 in Ontario.
1971
Shoppers Drug Mart expands into the Western Canada market with the purchase of 87 Cunningham Drug Stores in B.C. and Alta.
With this well-rounded suite of health and wellness offerings in place, expanding with fresh seemed like a logical next step for a retailer that was already doing so much to take care of its customers,
Adding aisles of fresh
In 2014, shortly after Loblaw Companies Ltd. acquired Shoppers Drug Mart for $12.4 billion in cash and stock, the first fresh-food aisles launched at select Shoppers stores in the greater Toronto area and in Regina, Sask.
“The Loblaw acquisition opened the door to us to a much broader spectrum of categories, namely fresh offerings in products such as meat, produce, baked goods and deli meats,” recalls Pat Dean, senior vice president of front store and category management at Shoppers Drug Mart. “So we initially trialed pilots in a couple of markets to determine consumers’ appetite for fresh convenience offerings. It proved to be very successful.”
That success didn’t come overnight. The idea of buying their steak from the same place they get their tampons and cough syrup took some getting used to among certain customers, even those who were already buying refrigerated groceries such as milk, eggs and butter from Shoppers.
Seeing the Loblaw’s brands they already know and love – such as PC, No Name and Farmer’s Market – was the deciding factor for many of these reluctant customers.
“It does take time for people to trust you, especially when it comes to fresh,” says Shoppers’ president, Leger. “But what we got from Loblaw was the credibility of their private-label brands. People see PC and Farmer’s Market on our shelves and straight away, they know and trust these brands.”
Since the initial pilot sites in Toronto and Regina, the number of Shoppers stores that offer fresh has grown to about 190. While Dean declined to share sales figures or other numbers, he says there’s been a notable increase in customer traffic in stores where Shoppers has implemented its fresh food program.
“And in terms of overall store impact, the folks that utilize the fresh food area spend, on average, double in a given store versus those customers that shop only for their health and beauty needs,” he adds.
Shoppers Drug Mart Through the Years
1972
First Pharmaprix store opens in Quebec, continues crosscountry expansion.
1987
Two firsts for Shoppers Drug Mart: opens first 24-hour, full-service drug stores in Ontario and first in-store Canada Post outlet.
1991
Helping patients manage their health, Shoppers Drug Mart introduces Health WATCH and the 500th store opens.
1995
Shoppers Drug Mart expands in Ontario, acquires 135 Big V drug stores in the province.
Promoting better health through fresh
The introduction and ongoing expansion of fresh grocery products at Shoppers isn’t just a way for the retailer to win more room in consumers’ shopping carts, says Sarah Ahmad, senior vice president, health and wellness, at Shoppers Drug Mart. With fresh, Shoppers has yet another opportunity to guide Canadians towards choices that promote better health and wellness.
The frontline people at Shoppers play an important role in making this happen, says Ahmad. As an example, she cites one pharmacist whose practice includes regular medication and health management reviews with patients who have chronic conditions such as diabetes.
During these reviews, the pharmacist often talks to patients about which foods are best for their condition and which might have adverse interactions with their medications.
“And he’ll also bring them to the fresh food area, where he can actually point out specific foods that the patient should include in their diet and he’ll give them ideas for doing that,” says Ahmad. “To be able to do that right in the store is exciting for our pharmacists because they can coach in the moment, and they can personalize that interaction with customers because they know their health and medication history. It’s so awesome to be able to do that.”
Spina agrees. At an Oakville, Ont., location that recently expanded its grocery offerings to include fresh, he knows of at least one pharmacist who was overjoyed at the prospect of being able to turn counselling into action – even before his patients leave the store.
“This pharmacist is really passionate about healthy eating and he’s really dedicated to helping customers become healthy through better diets – whether from a weight loss perspective or managing their diabetes better through the right food choices,” says Spina. “I know for a fact that his customers go back to him to talk about the success they’ve seen from the changes he’s helped them make in their eating habits. Having fresh food in his location ties in nicely to the work he’s been doing all this time.”
Shoppers Drug Mart Through the Years
1996
The first Health Care store offering home care products launches.
2000
Shoppers Drug Mart launches its Optimum loyalty program which, after one year, has six million members.
2001
Shoppers Drug Mart public offering SDM listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
2002
Shoppers Drug Mart opens first large format store and the first Tree of Life campaign launches to raise money for local charities.
A measured approach
Given the relatively smaller footprint of its stores – with an average square footage of 14,100, compared to 64,400 square feet for corporate-owned Loblaw’s stores and 31,200 square feet for franchisee-owned grocery locations – Shoppers takes a highly measured, analytics-based approach to choosing which stores should carry fresh and what fresh food products these select stores should put on their shelves.
Customers visiting the Shoppers stores that boast fresh will find different product assortments, says Dean.
“Location is a big factor in determining if a store is a good candidate for fresh,” he says. “For example, stores in high-density areas with high pedestrian traffic do extremely well, although space is a consideration because these locations also tend to be smaller.”
Stores in cities with a concentration of multi-use buildings, office towers and condominiums are more likely to have a fresh food assortment focused on lunchtime options such as sandwiches or salads, says Dean. By comparison, fresh in residential areas have more meal solutions, including prepared meal kits.
“What we’re learning is not to get too exotic in the assortment we’re offering – we’re successfully meeting our customers’ basic fresh food needs and they’ve confirmed that with their feedback,” says Dean. “People who are more food connoisseurs will go to the grocery store to get what they need. We’re not attempting to be a destination for a full grocery shop, and the role we play is we fill in with quick solutions that now include fresh products.”
Shoppers continues to refine its offerings within fresh, he adds, and customers can expect to see more stores with fresh food sections. Supply chain challenges in the last couple of years have hampered the company’s ability to expand fresh more broadly across the country, but with Loblaw’s recent move towards cross-distribution, that expansion should start to accelerate.
“Until now, we’ve only had the capability for a Loblaw’s distribution centre to ship to Loblaw’s and it’s required a manual workaround process to ship to a Shoppers store,” explains Dean. “With cross-distribution, any Loblaw’s distribution centre can ship to Shoppers and vice versa – any Shoppers distribution centre can ship to Loblaw’s. That will allow us to roll out more quickly across the country.”
Shoppers Drug Mart Through the Years
2003
The store-within-a-store Beauty BOUTIQUE concept is launched, offering customers high-end brands with personalized assistance.
2006
Acquires Medisystem Technologies and provides pharmacy products and services to long term care homes.
2007
Shoppers Drug Mart celebrates 100th store. In the same year, the chain introduces Simply Pharmacy, a small-format pharmacy located in medical buildings and clinics.
2008
Acquisition of the Health Access Division of Calea creates the Shoppers Drug Mart Specialty Health Network, a new division providing specialty drug distribution and patient support services.
LOVE YOU too: Community giving at its best
When you’ve been part of communities across Canada for 60 years, and when your pharmacists and associates are the people Canadians turn to most frequently for their health and wellness, you become good at recognizing crisis – and figuring out how you can help.
In the midst of the pandemic, Shoppers Drug Mart associates were critical in identifying women who may be experiencing violence at home or suffering from mental health issues brought on by the pressures of working from home while also looking after children who were being schooled virtually.
This constant ear-to-the-ground has, over the decades, informed community giving efforts at Shoppers. Last year, responding to the domestic crises many women were facing because of COVID-19, Shoppers raised more than $8 million to support more than 150 local women’s shelters.
“The message for all Canadians was to stay home to keep safe,” says Paulette Minard, director, community investment, at Shoppers Drug Mart. “But women who were dealing with domestic violence were anything but safe in their homes.”
The fundraiser to support women’s shelters is part of Shoppers’ community philanthropy through its LOVE YOU program, which focuses on women’s health. Since its launch in 2011, LOVE YOU has supported more than 450 women’s charities across the country through various fundraising events throughout the year.
A marquee event for the program, says Minard, is the LOVE YOU by Shoppers Drug Mart Run for Women, where participants across Canada can raise funds by signing up for a five- or 10-kilometre run.
“What’s really special about the work we do is how we’re able to respond to women’s emerging needs, in part because we work on the frontlines in our communities,” says Minard. “In addition to our work in mental health and domestic violence, we also support women’s whole health, with programs that focus on health issues that affect women, such as breast cancer or heart disease and stroke, which can affect women differently than men.”
Shoppers Drug Mart Through the Years
2010
The company launches Shoppers Drug Mart WOMEN, with a focus on philanthropic and community investment initiatives in support of women’s whole health.
2014
Loblaw Companies Limited acquires Shoppers Drug Mart.
2014
Shoppers Drug Mart adds fresh produce and grocery options to select stores.
2015
Launch of LOVE YOU by Shoppers program.
The future of fresh at Shoppers
Leger says Shoppers today is on a “journey to drive more fresh food into our locations – our customers love it and are really responding nicely to it, and as a category it’s performed really well, and we like that.”
Beyond the convenience of being able to pick up a head of lettuce or a nice cut of uncooked chicken along with their prescription medication, customers appreciate the value that come inherently from purchasing products at Shoppers, says Leger. Older Canadians in particular like how they’re now able to apply their 20 per cent senior’s discount – an ongoing offer that Shoppers extends every Thursday to customers over the age of 55 – to fresh food items.
“We do see seniors flocking to our stores on Thursday, and we know they like shopping for fresh, especially if they’re looking for meal solutions for one or two people,” says Leger.
Well-curated assortments based on ongoing analytics of market demographics will continue to be critical as fresh expands in current and new Shoppers locations. For instance, where the data supports it, certain locations could start putting more ethnic offerings in their freshfood sections.
“We want to make sure our customers can find what they want, whether they’re looking for a sandwich to eat during their lunchbreak or a meal solution on their way home from work,” says Leger. “At the same time, we never lose sight of the fact that Canadians have come to rely on Shoppers for their health and wellness needs, and fresh, high-quality food is a key part of that.”
Shoppers Drug Mart Through the Years
2018
Loblaw brings together two of Canada’s most popular loyalty programs, launching PC Optimum.
2022
Loblaw Companies Limited acquires Life mark Health Group to expand Shoppers Drug Mart’s healthcare services with rehabilitation offerings, including outpatient physiotherapy, theraputic massage and occupational therapy, chiropractic, and mental health support.
A national retailer built on a network of community pharmacies
The vision behind Shoppers Drug Mart was, from the start, ambitious. The first store spanned 4,000 square feet and the company’s early years saw the launch of its Life Brand.
Within its first decade, Shoppers had expanded to more than 140 stores in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, New Brunswick and Quebec, growing through a series of mergers and acquisitions. By 1991, the Shoppers Drug Mart network boasted 500 stores.
Over the next decades, Shoppers continued to expand and evolve, with new stores, programs and services, including many that were pioneering firsts in the industry. The 1980s brought in the first pharmacy in Ontario to stay open for 24 hours, seven days a week – an innovative service concept that Shoppers followed shortly after with the launch of its first in-store Canada Post outlet.
With the introduction in 1991 of HealthWATCH, Shoppers gave its pharmacists a better way to help their patients manage their medications through a computer program that flags potential allergies or drug interactions.
BeautyBOUTIQUE’s launch in 2003 turned out to be a gamechanger for consumers – and for Shoppers Drug Mart. This store-within-a-store concept – featuring mid- and up-market cosmetics, skincare and fragrances supported by service and advice from trained beauty consultants – positioned Shoppers as a destination for all things beauty. Six years after Beauty Boutique’s debut, cosmetics accounted for 20 per cent of Shoppers’ revenue.
Through its epic, 60-year journey from one store in Toronto to a national network of more than 1,300 locations, Shoppers Drug Mart has remained a local community pharmacy.
Its founder, Murray Koffler, made sure of that when he created the associate concept – a franchising system where each store is owned by a licensed pharmacist supported by a national corporate entity with the infrastructure, buying power and proven systems to ensure operational and cost efficiencies and consistent quality of service across the Shoppers network of stores.
“Pharmacists play a key role in the lives of Canadians, and during the pandemic, Canadians really turned to their pharmacy for help with their healthcare needs, whether that’s getting their COVID vaccine or getting tested for the coronavirus,” says Anthony Spina, senior vice president, pharmacy, at Shoppers Drug Mart. “When consumers look at the Shoppers brand, they see an organization that offers a wide range of complementary services. But they also know that we are the local pharmacy they can always count on, and we take great pride in the fact that millions of Canadians turn to us today for their primary healthcare needs.”
