 |
|
|
|||||
Amazon is rolling out kiosks that let patients get their prescriptions while they are still at the doctors office. Starting in December 2025, the tech behemoth will be stepping up its efforts to become a bigger presence in the pharmaceutical market by launching in-office pharmaceutical kiosks stocked with medicine. The kiosks will initially be launched at certain One Medical locations (which Amazon acquired in 2023 for $3.9 billion), including in Downtown Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, and West Hollywood. The company claims that the kiosks will help combat pharmacy deserts across the U.S., and help patients who dont or cant fill their prescriptions for chronic health conditions. Doubling the dose This is the latest move into pharmaceuticals by Amazon, which on top of One Medical also acquired medical startup PillPack for $750 million in 2019. Amazon does not disclose the official number of prescriptions it fills yearly, its pharmaceutical and healthcare financials, or specific revenues for Amazon Pharmacy. In an earnings call in July, CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon Pharmacy grew 50% year-over-year “on an already significant size base.” Amazons pharmaceutical kiosk expansion comes as other longtime pharmacies are facing their own troubles and sizing down. Walgreens Boots Allianceowner of Walgreens Pharmacyannounced mass closures last year and was taken private in August of this year, while Rite Aid has closed all of its locations after filing for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, CVSthe sectors leader with a 33% market shareplans on closing 270 stores in 2025. Good news for those who want to get their prescriptions via One Medical: Patients do not need to be a member or pay a fee if they are not enrolled in Amazon Prime. As for prescription choices, kiosks will be stocked with medication based on prescribing patterns of consumers living in that specific location.
Category:
E-Commerce
Theres a common story in the marketing and advertising industry, with many variations. Whenever a member of that industry is at a party or on a plane, inevitably someone will ask what they do for a living. And as soon as they say advertising, that person immediately begins to tell them how good theyd be at working in advertising, how they should make this or that ad campaign better, or why that ad they saw during an NFL game is terrible. This probably doesnt happen to engineers and doctors. The discipline of advertising, and the process behind it has always been up for debate and question. Well, starting on September 30th, NBCs new show On Brand with Jimmy Fallon is shining a bright, reality show light on that very process. Brands like KitchenAid, Marshalls, Pillsbury, Samsung, SONIC, Dunkin’, Southwest, Captain Morgan, and Therabody, all signed up to have their briefs or brand challenges taken on by 10 contestants, guided through the process by Fallon and and Bozoma Saint-John. Saint-John is a former chief marketing or brand officer at companies including Netflix, Uber, and Beats by Drewho also just happens to star on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. For this months episode of the Brand New World podcast, she joined me on stage at Fast Companys Innovation Festival, which was held in New York City in mid-September. On how she became a part of the show: Jimmy had the idea and sold it probably a year before we had a conversation. The challenge that he was facing was that, of course, he’s a genius at what he does, commenting about pop culture and making creative partnerships. But what he would say he doesn’t have is the résumé, the professional corporate chops to back it up. So he needed a partner to add legitimacy to the show. Then he saw me on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and his wife said, “What about Boz?” And he was like, “I dunno if a housewife is what I’m looking for.” But of course, we got on a call together, and we talked about the idea and what it could mean, how much I love the concept . . . I told him that the concept of marrying those two thingsadvertising and marketingas an entertainment platform can engage an audience. I was like, “Shoot, you better sign me up. Otherwise, I’m just coming to set anyway.” On the value for the brands: Some of the criticism that I’ve seen has been like, “Oh, it’s gonna be like one big infomercial.” And I guarantee you it’s not. I compare this to finding a new music star shows entered, whether it was American Idol or The Voice. All of us became experts. You sat on your couch, you watched somebody sing. All of a sudden you knew terms like “pitchy.” Nobody had ever said pitchy outside of the studio. This is similar, which is that the audience who’s going to watch this, and I believe are going to be as invested as the contestants.
Category:
E-Commerce
Taylor Swift sold 2.7 million copies of her new album The Life of a Showgirl on its release day Friday, and luckily for Swifties buying up multiple copies to help their idol on the chart, they didn’t have to pay any tariffs on their purchases. U.S. consumers now face a 18.6% overall average effective tariff rate, according to Yales Budget Lab, and one music professor estimated that if tariffs were applied to physical music, they could have hiked the price of a vinyl record to as much as $40 to $50 a pop. They’re not, though, thanks some recently relevant Reagan-era legislation. Instead, Swift fans have to cough up $35 for the Target-exclusive “Summertime Spritz Pink Shimmer Vinyl” version of the album, which is imported from Mexico, limited-edition, and comes with a poster (the standard version is $30). [Photo: Target] President Donald Trump tariffs were imposed under emergency economic powers that the Brennan Center for Justice say constitute a misuse of power, and they’ve faced legal challenges. The Supreme Court is planning to take up the case, but already, media like books, movies, and physical music are except from the extra cost because of the Berman Amendment. Named for Howard Berman, a California Democrat who represented a district in the Los Angeles area in the U.S. House from 1983 to 2013, the law revised the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the same law that Trump used as justification for his tariffs. Berman’s amendment prohibits the president from directly or indirectly regulating or prohibiting the importation of an “informational materials,” including publications, films, posters, photographs, and records. The Berman Amendment protects cross-border speech from presidential overreach, and it attracted new interest when Trump said in May he would impose 100% tariffs on movies and TV shows produced outside the U.S. Passed in 1988, the Berman Amendment is welcome relief for companies that sell physical media across national borders, like book and magazine publishers, as well as the music industry, which saw vinyl sales grow from 13.1 million in 2016 to 49.6 million in 2023, according to Luminate Music Consumption Data. Domestic vinyl record production in the U.S. is ramping up (in Tennessee, Nashville’s United Record Pressing, which is the nation’s oldest record maker, is busier than ever, and one local company that supplies vinyl makers announced a $10 million expansion in the state in January), but currently, supply can’t keep up with demand. For Swifties whose fandom would otherwise be caught up in Trump’s trade war with the rest of the economy, the law protects their imported vinyl purchases from an extra fee courtesy the president.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||