Shoppers Drug Mart slowly turning into the urban Walmart

Shoppers Drug Mart slowly turning into the urban Walmart

Shoppers Drug Mart, the ubiquitous drugstore that sells everything from frozen vegetables to cosmetics (oh, medicine, too), is further expanding its offerings to include electronics and ethnic foods in its continuing evolution into a one-stop shopping destination.

Following in the footsteps of Walmart and Canadian Tire, Shoppers CEO Jurgen Schreiber told the Globe that he’d like his company to focus more on food and introduce more private-label lines. Photo departments will be phased out to make room for high-tech gadgets and a “youth corner” to attract younger shoppers.

It seems nothing is stopping the 59-year-old company that’s been dubbed the city’s general store (see our article about Shoppers in the March issue of Toronto Life). As we noted in that piece, there are currently 9.5 million Optimum cardholders across the country. The store’s strong fourth-quarter results, which were released two weeks ago, set a record for the company, boosted by sales of over-the-counter medication (thank you, H1N1).

Just as people go to Indigo to buy coffee and Staples to buy potato chips, perhaps they’ll soon go to Shoppers to buy Life brand bacon.

Shoppers continues its march to general store [Globe and Mail]
• The new general store [Toronto Life]
Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation announces fourth quarter and full year results [CNW]