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CAMP HILL, Pa. - Rite Aid Corp. has wrapped up its installation of robotic prescription dispensing systems in Buffalo N.Y.-area Rite Aid pharmacies, marking the rollout of automated dispensing in four of its markets and another step in its quest to become the chain drug industry's most efficient pharmacy retailer.
Rite Aid is adding the hands-free systems to high-volume stores through-out the chain in a bold but expensive bid to fully automate most of its pharmacies nationwide in three to four years. As of mid-July, the 4,000-store chain had installed ScriptPro Inc.'s SP 200 robotic filling system-which Rite Aid has branded the RapidScript system for its own marketing purposes-in 34 Buffaloarea stores.
The chain already has rolled RapidScript into its stores in three other markets, beginning with its first marketwide launch in Syracuse, N.Y., last summer and extending to all 10 of its Las Vegas stores and most of its Detroit-area stores since late last year. In addition, Rite Aid has installed the system in more than 100 of its highest-volume stores nationwide.
By the end of this year, the chain plans to have the system in some 750 stores around the U.S., company officials said. "Then we're just going to continue until basically all the chain is done; that's what we're looking toward," said Mary Beth Habuda, director of Rite Aid's RapidScript program.
Rite Aid's initial installation strategy was even more ambitious, and was limited only by ScriptPro's production capability, Habuda added.
The installation project in Detroit is the biggest single-market rollout to date. "Detroit is a high-volume market; more than 50 percent of our stores there are what we consider high volume, which is 1,500 scripts and above," said Habuda. "That's the original criterion for RapidScript."
Rite Aid has targeted its larger stores on the West Coast-formerly Thrifty and PayLess stores which it acquired several years ago-for a high-priority rollout because it expects a quick...