This grocery chain is offering free GLP-1 starter kits 

With GLP-1 use on the rise in the U.S., one grocery store chain made a starter kit for first-time customers that could help capture a higher percentage of their food budget at a time when it’s becoming increasingly important.

ShopRite’s “Wellness Your Way” branded kits are free for customers filling their first GLP-1 prescription at the East Coast grocer’s in-store pharmacies. They’re one part informational, another part promotional, and they’re designed to look like they’re from a direct-to-consumer subscription healthcare brand, taking advantage of ShopRite’s specific store model.

The blue mailer box, which is available while supplies last, opens from a front flap that tucks into the base and says “Let’s get started” on the outside. Inside, there are die-cut inserts for a print wellness guide that features diet recommendations from ShopRite’s registered dietitian, and samples like a protein shake and collagen powder. Coupons for products like frozen meals, lean beef, and blueberries are also included, according to a press release.

“We’ve seen a growing number of customers seeking GLP-1 medications, and we want to make sure they feel supported from the moment they fill that first prescription,” Aaron Sapp, vice president of pharmacy and wellness for ShopRite’s parent company, Wakefern Food Corp., said in a statement.

How GLP-1s are changing grocery shopping habits

About one in eight U.S. adults are taking a GLP-1 for weight loss, according to a KFF Health Tracking poll released last fall, and that figure is expected to grow. The medications, which are appetite suppressors, are sold under names like Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, and they’re reshaping what’s found in American shopping carts and powering a protein boom.

Within six months, a household with at least one GLP-1 user reduces its grocery spending by 5.3%, a study published in December in the Journal of Marketing Research found, but spending actually increased for foods like yogurt and fruit.

To adapt, brands now sell GLP-1-focused products, like Nestlé’s line of frozen meals, called Vital Pursuit. Some grocers are redesigning their produce sections. Thrive Market added a GLP-1 filter to its site last year.

For grocery store pharmacy chains, the growing popularity of these drugs represents a marketing opportunity to encourage new consumer habits directly at the source.

Wakefern said as much in its announcement, noting that supermarket pharmacies “sit at a unique intersection of medicine and food.” The New Jersey-based supermarket cooperative says the ShopRite kits can help customers connect the dots between the prescription, food choices, and well-being.

As brands look for ways to get their GLP-1-focused products in front of potential customers, free samples are one way. But packaging free samples in a mailer box for new users of weight-loss drugs with recommendations from a dietitian is, so far, a unique approach. Packaged like a DTC subscription box, the starter kit shows how combination grocery store-pharmacies have a distinct competitive advantage as GLP-1s change household grocery bills.

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