2014 NACDS Total Store Expo to Feature Vision 2025

PRESS RELEASE

June 9, 2014, Arlington, Va. — To help imagine cutting-edge innovations of the industry’s future, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) today announced the creation of Vision 2025 at the NACDS Total Store Expo which will be held August 23-26, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. Partnering with NACDS in this endeavor are Checkpoint Systems and Kantar Retail, leaders in global retail merchandising and technology.

Conveniently located at the entrance to the exhibit floor of the NACDS Total Store Expo at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Vision 2025 will provide attendees with a glimpse of “what comes next” in the industry through technology platforms, displays and interactive experiences. An additional feature of this space will be the NACDS-TV studio, which will provide full broadcast coverage of the four-day trade show and strategic exchange.

“We are pleased to be partnering with two industry thought leaders who can help deliver on our objectives in providing forward-focused opportunities for attendees at the NACDS Total Store Expo,” said NACDS President and CEO, Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE. “As the industry prepares for the implementation of provisions of the Drug Quality and Security Act in 2025, we believe that Vision 2025 will help demonstrate what the industry — including the pharmacy and other departments in retail stores – may look like in ten years. Additionally, we know that retailers will continue to be laser-focused on serving as solution-providers for consumers’ evolving wants and needs.”

Checkpoint Systems, Inc., (NYSE:CKP), a leading global supplier of merchandise availability solutions for the retail industry, will illustrate how pharmaceutical companies, distributors and pharmacy retailers can leverage radio-frequency identification (RFID) to comply with the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA).

At the NACDS Total Store Expo, Checkpoint will demonstrate its Merchandise Visibility Solution, which will enable pharmaceutical suppliers, distributors, pharmacy retailers, and consumer packaged goods providers to obtain additional benefits, while complying with the new federal regulation.

“DQSA is going to improve the safety of the pharmaceutical supply chain for all stakeholders,” said Farrokh Abadi, president and chief operating officer Merchandise Availability Solutions for Checkpoint Systems. “Our Merchandise Visibility Solutions are already making a compelling difference for apparel retailers and brand owners, and we look forward to delivering similar value to pharmacy retailers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors as well, as they plan for the new federal regulation.”

Kantar Retail will provide a multi-lensed and multi-media view of retail’s future, with an eye toward the major trends impacting retail in the convenience, beauty and healthcare space for Vision 2025.

“Our vision for the future will focus on delighting shoppers in 2025 with an eye toward what they care about and how to meet their retail needs, as well as managing the ‘Store Of The Future,’ demonstrating best-in-class operational and analytic technologies to optimize tomorrow’s supply chain,” said Brian Gildenberg, chief knowledge officer of Kantar Retail.

Kantar Retail anticipates these key elements to be focus areas of their presentation at the NACDS Total Store Expo:

• Consumer 2025 — what a much more diverse consumer will expect from their retail experience
• The “endless shelf” and ideas on what best in class solutions will look like to bring a world of assortment to a small space
• Convenience Reinvented — what will make the store shopping experience faster
• Demonstrating the technologies/services that will be available to help shoppers identify and treat health conditions
• In-store displays in health and beauty — understanding the future of physical fixtures and how they can help entice incremental purchase and tie to the virtual world
• In-store automation techniques and how the free flow of information can truly optimize store management and product flow
• The brainpower — what do the analytic capabilities of retailers and suppliers look like to optimize this complex world
• The virtual store — how real will the experience be when shoppers are shopping in “non-retail environments.”

Kantar Retail, as part of Kantar, and WPP will be using a number of partner companies to bring this vision to life — notably Red Dot Square, experts in virtual reality merchandising, and WPP digital innovation agency Rockfish, which has deep expertise in both consumer-facing technology and retail automation technology platforms.

Vision 2025 will be open during the exhibit hall hours of the NACDS Total Store Expo.