Retail chain Max-Wellness will soon be referred to as much more than just a retail chain.
The company, which operates four wellness-products stores in the U.S, unveiled several new initiatives aimed at reaching customers outside of those stores. Among those initiatives: a home-care “concierge” service for seniors, smaller “mini-Max” stores in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, “wellness-in-box” vending machines with wellness products tailored to the machines’ locations and an expanded website with thousands of products.
“We are building a national brand, not just a brick-and-mortar chain” said CEO Michael Feuer, who made millions as the founder (and later seller) of national office supply chain OfficeMax. “Our objective is to provide answers for healthy living — where, when and how the customer wants to get them.”
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But the company certainly isn’t abandoning its brick-and-mortar plans. Warrensville Heights, Ohio-based Max-Wellness plans to open an additional four to six retail locations throughout the rest of the year. The company has signed a lease for space in one of those new locations in Columbus, Ohio.
For the concierge service, Max-Wellness is teaming up with health insurer Humana for an initiative that’s aimed at helping seniors manage their health to stay in their homes and out of nursing homes.
The service will help seniors manage chronic conditions and also will provide assistance with transportation, home safety, meals, medications and daily tasks like bathing and dressing, according to a statement from Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana.
The new offering involves an in-home consultation with a Humana care manager, consisting of an analysis of a senior’s medical needs and living situation. The manager, who’ll work out of a Max-Wellness retail location, would then draw up a care management plan and recommendations for ways to make the patient’s house more home-care friendly, such as equipment or services to aid in bathing, cleaning and food preparation.
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The consultation, care management plan and recommendations will cost $450, The Plain Dealer reported.
The “mini-Max” store-in-a-hospital concept is aimed at providing wellness products that patients will need after leaving the hospital. “Working with the hospital staff prior to a patient’s discharge, our wellness advocate will visit the patient [and that patient’s] family members to provide assistance in selecting products for the patient’s continuing care,” Feuer told Drug Store News.
For the “wellness-in-a-box” initiative, Feuer said he was inspired by electronics vending machines, such as those that sell iPods that he saw in an airport. A Max-Wellness vending machine in an airport would sell travel products like sleep aids, while one in a gym would contain workout-related wares like supplements, for example.
Finally, Max-Wellness plans to initiate “affinity programs,” in which it’ll partner with employee-benefits companies to serve as wellness-products providers to corporate clients of those benefits companies.
The new initiatives are all part of Feuer’s plan to ride the wave of the growing health and wellness industry, which reached $125 billion in sales in 2009. Along the way, he hopes to redefine the word “wellness” as a concept that means more than just healthy eating and working out to encompass “whatever makes a person have a fuller life.”
