BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- WalMart isn't alone in pointing to the overall success of its $4 prescription drug program.
According to a report released in February by BIG-research, a company offering insights on consumer behavior at retail and in other sectors, the discounter's program appears to be particularly successful among consumers who report a household income of less than $50,000.
'Wal-Mart pioneered the $4 prescription drug program and forced competitors to respond,' points out Pam Goodfellow, a senior analyst at Columbus, Ohio-based BIGresearch.
And the move by competitors to adopt similar programs has not been criticized but rather embraced by Wal-Mart.
'Whether it is an informal matching or a more formal embracing of the $4 concept, we're pleased to see that the larger marketplace recognizes we all have an obligation to try to help control the cost of health care,' comments senior vice president and president of health and wellness John Agwunobi, who notes that the list of $4 generic prescriptions included in the program represents over 25% of the prescriptions currently dispensed in its pharmacies across the country.
Wal-Mart has promoted the services in a number of ways, including in-store signage that advises the customer to ask a pharmacist about the $4 generic drug initiative.
According to a report late last year by TNS Retail Forward, almost one in five shoppers overall are taking advantage of discount generic drug programs.
Its ShoppperScape survey shows 18% of primary households in the United States report filling household prescriptions using discount generic drug pricing programs offered by Wal-Mart and several other pharmacy retailers.
'Lower- to middle-income households and middle-aged shoppers are significantly more likely to use generic drug programs,' says TNS. 'Shoppers who take advantage of the generic discount drug programs are more likely than all shoppers to make less than $75,000 annually; they are also more likely to be in the 45-54 age group.
'The likelihood of repeat business from shoppers who participate is high. When asked to fill prescriptions again using discount drug programs, a vast majority of shoppers (88%) report they are extremely likely or very likely to do so again; another 9% are somewhat likely to do so.'
The report also points to the potential for Wal-Mart and other retailers to convert shoppers who have not yet tried generic drug programs.
It says almost half of shoppers who have not yet filled any household prescriptions using such programs indicate that they are likely to do so in the future.
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