Lewis Drug is deeply passionate about providing essential pharmacy options to small towns and communities across South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota, ensuring everyone has access to quality healthcare. At its 60 locations, shoppers can expect a one-stop experience for everything they need, from everyday basics to lawn and garden essentials, along with a wide range of specialty items. 

Troy Claussen, who is the Category Manager for HBA, along with his team, will be participating in ECRM’s upcoming Vitamin, Weight Management & Sports Nutrition Session, which will be held September 8 through September 11 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (Troy is a long-time ECRM Sesion participant, having participated in literally more than 100 of them over the past two decades.)

In this Q&A, Troy shares what he is seeking from suppliers who meet with him and his team at the Session. 

ECRM: Tell us about your role at Lewis Drug.

Claussen: I'm category manager for all of the health and beauty aids and at the office here I've got Nicole and Chantelle who work together on those categories and Nicole and I generally travel together to shows and take appointments together most of the time. Sometimes we do split up on those and Chantelle is more of the admin for us here in the office, but the three of us kind of take care of all of health and beauty at Lewis Drug.

ECRM: At our upcoming Vitamin, Weight Management & Sports Nutrition Session, what kind of products are you looking for?

Claussen: At this show or any other show that we'd go to for ECRM, we're looking for what's new out there. New innovation is always good. If it's just another me too item, we may not be as interested, particularly if we have something out there already that's doing well. But new innovation for sure – what their best items are is what we would look at first.

ECRM: Are there particular types of products that are popular with your customers that you are seeking at the Session?

Claussen: Right now our top items in vitamins for sure would be brain health and eye health, which do very well for us. But then within the vitamins, it's probably not a whole lot different than anybody else out there, but we also do extremely well with Melatonin; that's definitely a big category for us as well. 

Weight management and sports nutrition are not as big for us, but we do definitely have products in those areas, so we’ll definitely be looking at those areas as well.

ECRM: Are there any specific capabilities that you're looking for among the suppliers you do business with? 

Claussen: We probably wouldn't be looking at much as far as private label – we do have a program there already, but we don't manage it ourselves per se. But as far as other capabilities, we are EDI capable, but that's not a requirement; we can email purchase orders, but we certainly can send them EDI. To me, one of the big things is how is the supplier going to market the item? How are they going to let the general public know about the item, about what's better, what's different? So if we put the item in our store, our guests that are coming in have heard about it, know a little something about it and would be interested in possibly purchasing it.

ECRM: What questions should suppliers be prepared to answer during your meeting with them?

Claussen: Obviously the marketing one's going to come up on what avenues are they using to get their information about their item out there? Why is your item or brand different or better than something that we're currently stocking? Why is our guest going to choose your item over something else? Margins are always a topic as well that we would want to discuss. What other retailers are stocking your item right now and it online only or is it in store? Where does the product ship from? What are the freight terms? All of that would come up in the meetings as well.

ECRM: When you're having a meeting with a supplier, how much time should they devote to their presentation? How much time do you want for Q&A? 

Claussen: I would say maybe 75% of their time should be devoted to their presentation and 25% to Q&A.