retailmediaIQ hosts NACDS TSE breakfast session. Regional retail leaders highlighted how community knowledge, agility, and strong CPG links help compete with national chains at a retailmediaIQ breakfast during NACDS Total Store Expo. August 15, 2026. 10:30 AM BOSTON - The factors enabling regional retailers to compete effectively in a marketplace dominated by big national chains were examined this morning at a breakfast meeting sponsored by retailmediaIQ. Held in conjunction with NACDS Total Store Expo in Boston, the session featured John Marraffa, president of Kinney Drugs; Angie Nelson, senior vice president of pharmacy at Hy-Vee; Mike Stigers, president of Wakefern; and Mike Wysong, chief executive officer of Care Pharmacies. Regional chains' intimate knowledge of the communities in which they operate, ability to adapt quickly to changes in consumer behavior, and relationships with CPG companies were among the topics explored during the discussion, which Jeffrey Woldt, retailmediaIQ's editor-in-chief, moderated.

AI assistant named for long-dead pharmacy founder mutters incomprehensibly and "demands that you talk to him" 4 2 minutes read A Vermont pharmacy chain's new AI assistant led not to the efficiency improvements promised but to "delays, incorrect information and privacy concerns." The AI, named "Burt" after the chain's long-dead founder, is said to suggest the wrong refills on sensitive medications, among other alarming problems. Customers "have no idea they agreed to it." Kinney Drugs' AI assistant for prescription refills was implemented earlier this summer and VTDigger reports that customers hate it. One told them her phone rings nearly every day and she hears an "incomprehensible mutter." If she expresses approval she gets drugs she doesn't need: "I've got four bottles of something that I take twice a week sitting here." Delays have grown between physicians ordering drugs and the pharmacy processing them. The system has been unable to locate longtime customer accounts, has ordered incorrect dosages and has failed to notify customers when refills were ready for pickup. And these inaccuracies are raising privacy concerns amongst customers. Their mounting frustrations toward the AI is leading some customers to leave the pharmacy entirely, they said, and forcing others to continue using a system they distrust due to a lack of pharmaceutical options in rural areas. It's as if the new technology has inadvertantly summoned the confused and disembodied spirit of Burt Kinney himself, invoked like MMAcevedo on every call, handing random drugs out like candy and occasionally trying to describe the inchoate horrors of the afterlife. "Burt demands that you talk to him," said Maria Aveni, a Vermont Kinney Drugs customer who has worked in healthcare as an anesthesiologist "Burt" was announced to much fanfare in May. Kinney Drugs said that when people use Ask Burt, they are tapping into a knowledge base that carries the latest updated guidance for vaccine eligibility for a range of vaccinations, including COVID, influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), pneumonia and shingles. As vaccine guidance continues to evolve, Burt will be able to help patients to stay up to date. Burt is also sharing the customers' data, too. Synerio is a company in Texas that develops "AI-first pharmacy solutions" and The pharmacy's privacy policy, released the same month as the AI assistant, discloses, for example, that customers' protected health information may be used in AI tools to improve the pharmacy's operations. Kinney Drugs "spreads its terms and conditions across 11 documents," VTDigger notes. The privacy disaster notwithstanding, I'm a big fan of all these deranged "hinterland model" AI chatbots that talk nonsense and can be talked out of whatever context they're given. Burt seems vulnerable to jailbreaks but shuts down or resets pretty quick once you get him out of the pharmacy. One guy convinced a Chevrolet dealership's AI chatbot to sell a 2024 Tahoe for a dollar. Air Canada was ordered to compensate a grieving customer whose chatbot promised a bereavement deal that didn't exist. A delivery firm's AI assistant composed a haiku calling itself useless. Taco Bell spiked an AI trial at 500 drive-thrus after it accepted an order for 18,000 cups of water.