The year appears to be off to a good start and CVS executives were optimistic Wednesday morning as the company pulled in a “strong” first quarter and narrowed its 2013 guidance to reflect higher-than-expected performance.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in March 2012 vs. March 2013 and noticed some common overall trends across top retail chains. Surprisingly the total number of pages per circular increased across the majority of retailers included in the study which shows that retailers are still focused heavily on their print circulars.

CVS/pharmacy has launched a first-of-its-kind interactive app, delivering a virtual 3-D digital drug store experience for customers using Apple iPads. 

In December, the retailers that increased their page counts were balanced out by those that decreased their page counts. However, of those retailers that did reduce their page counts, only two also reduced the number of inserts distributed by more than 2%.

Nineteen of the nation’s leading retail and CPG companies received perfect scores on the 2013 Corporate Equality Index compiled by the Human Rights Campaign.

CVS/pharmacy has introduced a variety of new features to its mobile suite, which consists of the CVS mobile app and a mobile-optimized website at m.CVS.com.

As tropical storm Isaac barrels down on the Gulf Coast area, CVS/pharmacy has announced that, while complying with any mandatory evacuation order given by local officials, it is keeping its stores in affected areas open for as long as possible and stocking them with such storm preparedness items as water, batteries, flashlights and other products to help in an emergency.

With the start of Back to School promotions, (and taking JCPenney out of the mix) we witnessed increase in page count that was driven mainly by significant increases in Walmart’s and Sears’ page counts.

CVS/pharmacy has launched a new in-store fundraising campaign named Advancing Medical Research, to support medical research and help improve the quality of life for those living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and cystic fibrosis (CF).

CVS Caremark held its annual meeting of stockholders at its headquarters on Thursday, and the tone attendees heard was a positive one.

The year got started with an overall drop in circular counts per market from five flyers to four flyers compared with January 2011.