药店销售额下滑，依靠宠物生意维持营业
在美国各地开始执行居家隔离令时，尚特尔•布朗在里士满教堂山社区的药店Hope Pharmacy经历了一场抢购潮。人们蜂拥而至抢购药物，为度过新冠疫情做准备。但到4月初，药店的生意却变得冷冷清清。
新冠疫情带来的最具有讽刺意味的现象之一是，愿意去找医护人员就诊的人越来越少，而这也影响了美国各地的许多药店。彼得森医疗保健中心（Peterson Center on Healthcare）和凯撒家庭基金会（Kaiser Family Foundation，KFF）8月份的一项研究显示，到4月底，已开具处方总量与1月和2月相比有所减少，但最近出现了一些反弹的迹象。
最初处方量的减少对于小型独立药店的影响尤其严重，包括布朗的药店。
Hope Pharmacy先是改为提供洗手液。公司将洗手液免费提供给急救人员，并向客户出售。公司还大幅扩大了配送业务。但随着人们纷纷取消选择性医疗程序，而且越来越的多人对社区急诊心存疑虑，因此布朗知道她必须开辟新的收入来源。
她最成功的方案之一是增加销售宠物药品。
布朗在自己开药店之前，曾在山姆会员店（Sam’s Club）工作，当时那里还提供宠物药品。她在疫情初期去拜访了一个战略规划组织，并在那时产生了供应宠物药品的想法。
要购买宠物药品并不难。许多宠物可以服用人类药品，比如治疗高血压和心脏病的药物等。重点在于让人们知道他们除了直接向兽医买药以外，现在多了一个选择。
布朗并不常用社交媒体。她说她更喜欢用较为“传统的”方式吸引客户，于是她和丈夫做了一些标志牌摆在院子里，还会在配送的时候附上宣传单。不久，药店的业务量开始回升。
2018年4月底开业的Hope Pharmacy，目前服务“大约800位”当地居民，但自从药店开始销售宠物药之后，平均每天会增加两位新患者。CVS或许对这些数据会不屑一顾，但对于一家小型独立药店而言却非常重要。
布朗说：“曾经有几个人建议我们应该与兽医合作。我尝试过，但我当时没有意识到兽医靠宠物药能获得多少收入。我们的药价便宜得多，而且我们可以帮助患者省钱。”
独立药店早在新冠疫情爆发时就已经面临挑战。据U.S. News统计，2009年至2015年期间，有9,654家药店关门，而独立药店关门的概率是连锁药店的三倍。
有人担心随着疫情持续蔓延，客户会更多依赖邮购药物，但美国药剂师协会（American Pharmacists Association）的颠覆性创新与实践转型事务高级顾问安东尼•契亚切亚表示，现在许多药店的业务已经基本恢复正常。
但人们依旧会尽量避免去医生的诊所就诊，另外药店行业希望能说服监管部门，允许他们在业务中整合更多临床服务，可以成为医生的某种合作伙伴，这将是疫情期间支持小药店维持生存的另外一种主要业务。
契亚切亚说：“我们曾经讨论过让药剂师收费提供疼痛管理等服务。我们不想取代初级保健门诊，但我们很好奇，如果允许医疗保健专业教育程度最高的第二大群体接诊患者，会带来什么机会……药剂师都具备相关的专业知识，并且接受过专业培训。他们可以接触到患者，所以这种想法绝非无的放矢。”
无论允许药剂师接诊患者，还是销售并非药店主营产品的宠物药品等策略，都是出于同样的目的：与作为客户的患者建立更亲密的关系，以换取他们的忠诚。如果美国再爆发一轮严重的新冠疫情，或者有其他疫情迫使人们只能待在家里，忠诚客户将更容易回归。
布朗说：“在药店行业中，培养老主顾需要时间，因为人们会习惯去自己常去的药店买药。我们的希望和目标不只是吸引来宠物，而是能服务顾客一家人。”（财富中文网）
翻译：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
在美国各地开始执行居家隔离令时，尚特尔•布朗在里士满教堂山社区的药店Hope Pharmacy经历了一场抢购潮。人们蜂拥而至抢购药物，为度过新冠疫情做准备。但到4月初，药店的生意却变得冷冷清清。
新冠疫情带来的最具有讽刺意味的现象之一是，愿意去找医护人员就诊的人越来越少，而这也影响了美国各地的许多药店。彼得森医疗保健中心（Peterson Center on Healthcare）和凯撒家庭基金会（Kaiser Family Foundation，KFF）8月份的一项研究显示，到4月底，已开具处方总量与1月和2月相比有所减少，但最近出现了一些反弹的迹象。
最初处方量的减少对于小型独立药店的影响尤其严重，包括布朗的药店。
Hope Pharmacy先是改为提供洗手液。公司将洗手液免费提供给急救人员，并向客户出售。公司还大幅扩大了配送业务。但随着人们纷纷取消选择性医疗程序，而且越来越的多人对社区急诊心存疑虑，因此布朗知道她必须开辟新的收入来源。
她最成功的方案之一是增加销售宠物药品。
布朗在自己开药店之前，曾在山姆会员店（Sam’s Club）工作，当时那里还提供宠物药品。她在疫情初期去拜访了一个战略规划组织，并在那时产生了供应宠物药品的想法。
要购买宠物药品并不难。许多宠物可以服用人类药品，比如治疗高血压和心脏病的药物等。重点在于让人们知道他们除了直接向兽医买药以外，现在多了一个选择。
布朗并不常用社交媒体。她说她更喜欢用较为“传统的”方式吸引客户，于是她和丈夫做了一些标志牌摆在院子里，还会在配送的时候附上宣传单。不久，药店的业务量开始回升。
2018年4月底开业的Hope Pharmacy，目前服务“大约800位”当地居民，但自从药店开始销售宠物药之后，平均每天会增加两位新患者。CVS或许对这些数据会不屑一顾，但对于一家小型独立药店而言却非常重要。
布朗说：“曾经有几个人建议我们应该与兽医合作。我尝试过，但我当时没有意识到兽医靠宠物药能获得多少收入。我们的药价便宜得多，而且我们可以帮助患者省钱。”
独立药店早在新冠疫情爆发时就已经面临挑战。据U.S. News统计，2009年至2015年期间，有9,654家药店关门，而独立药店关门的概率是连锁药店的三倍。
有人担心随着疫情持续蔓延，客户会更多依赖邮购药物，但美国药剂师协会（American Pharmacists Association）的颠覆性创新与实践转型事务高级顾问安东尼•契亚切亚表示，现在许多药店的业务已经基本恢复正常。
但人们依旧会尽量避免去医生的诊所就诊，另外药店行业希望能说服监管部门，允许他们在业务中整合更多临床服务，可以成为医生的某种合作伙伴，这将是疫情期间支持小药店维持生存的另外一种主要业务。
契亚切亚说：“我们曾经讨论过让药剂师收费提供疼痛管理等服务。我们不想取代初级保健门诊，但我们很好奇，如果允许医疗保健专业教育程度最高的第二大群体接诊患者，会带来什么机会……药剂师都具备相关的专业知识，并且接受过专业培训。他们可以接触到患者，所以这种想法绝非无的放矢。”
无论允许药剂师接诊患者，还是销售并非药店主营产品的宠物药品等策略，都是出于同样的目的：与作为客户的患者建立更亲密的关系，以换取他们的忠诚。如果美国再爆发一轮严重的新冠疫情，或者有其他疫情迫使人们只能待在家里，忠诚客户将更容易回归。
布朗说：“在药店行业中，培养老主顾需要时间，因为人们会习惯去自己常去的药店买药。我们的希望和目标不只是吸引来宠物，而是能服务顾客一家人。”（财富中文网）
翻译：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
When stay-at-home orders began to spread across the country, Shantelle Brown, owner of Hope Pharmacy in Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood, saw a rush. People stocked up on their medications as they prepared to wait out the coronavirus pandemic. By the beginning of April, though, business had dried up.
One of the greatest ironies of the pandemic is that fewer people are visiting health care professionals—and that has impacted many pharmacies across the country. An August study from the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) shows the total number of filled prescriptions, as of late April, was down compared with January and February, but there are some signs of recent rebounding.
That initial gap was especially hard on small independent drugstores, including Brown’s.
Initially, Hope Pharmacy shifted by making hand sanitizer. The business distributed it to first responders for no charge and sold it to customers. The company vastly expanded its delivery business, as well. But as elective procedures were canceled, and apprehension grew about visiting the emergency room in that community, Brown knew she had to look for new ways to increase revenue.
One of the most successful initiatives has been adding pets to the patient list.
Before opening her own pharmacy, Brown worked at Sam’s Club, which included pet meds among its offerings while she was there. As she met with a strategic planning group in the early days of the pandemic, the idea popped into her head.
Getting access to the meds wasn’t hard. Many pets take the same medicines humans do for things like blood pressure and heart conditions. The trick was letting people know they had an option other than buying directly from their vet.
Brown’s not much for social media. She says she prefers a more “old-fashioned” way of attracting business, so she and her husband made up signs that people could put in their yards and flyers that accompanied deliveries. Before long, business picked up.
Hope Pharmacy, which opened at the end of April 2018, currently serves “800-something” people in the community, but since it began selling pet meds, it has been adding an average of two new patients per day. And while those aren’t numbers that would ping the radar at CVS, they’re huge for a small independent pharmacy.
“We had a couple of people advise us that we should partner with a vet,” says Brown. “I tried, but…I didn’t realize at the time how much vets were making off of pet meds. Our prices are so much cheaper, and we’re able to save patients quite a bit of money.”
COVID-19 hit as independent pharmacies were already facing challenges. Between 2009 and 2015, 9,654 pharmacies shut down—and independent pharmacies were three times as likely to close as chain pharmacies, according to U.S. News.
There was a fear that customers would rely more on mail-order pharmacies as the pandemic has continued, but Antonio Ciaccia, senior adviser for disruptive innovation and practice transformation at the American Pharmacists Association, says business has now largely returned to normal for many pharmacies.
People are still avoiding doctor’s offices, though, and the pharmacy industry is hoping to persuade regulators to let them integrate more clinical services into their practices, serving as a partner of sorts with physicians—another pandemic pivot that would bolster small practices.
“We’ve had conversations about getting pharmacists paid for things like pain management,” says Ciaccia. “We don’t want to replace primary care visits, but we’re interested in what opportunities exist where you can have the second most educated health care professional to engage the patient…Pharmacists certainly have the expertise and training. It just makes sense, given the accessibility they have to the patient.”
The goal with this, as with the carrying of pet meds or other products that aren’t traditional pharmacy staples, is the same, though: build a closer relationship with the patient-customer to earn his or her loyalty. In the event that another substantial wave of COVID hits the country—or some other pandemic forces people back into their homes—those customers will be more apt to return quickly.
“In the pharmacy business, it takes a while to build a clientele because people are used to going where they go,” says Brown. “Our hope and goal is not to just get the animal—we want the whole family.”
