Its new GLP-1 Support Multivitamin, for example, provides “a host of essential nutrients… with Suntheanine for stress support plus ginger for occasional nausea—two common concerns among GLP-1 users.”
“We began to hear from our team as well as from customers that with the new GLP-1 drugs available, they were going to choose the pharma option,” Vitamin Shoppe president Muriel Gonzalez told ADWEEK. Since vitamins and supplements can address many of the drugs’ side effects, she added, the chain found itself in “a unique position.”
Vitamin Shoppe competitor General Nutrition Center rolled out its own collection last year, which sits in stores below a banner that reads: “You’re Dealing With GLP-1 Side Effects. Now What?”
Restaurant chain Smoothie King has added blends “to support your GLP-1 routine” to its menu, and Nestle, whose Vital Pursuit a suite of “delicious, high protein meals with essential ingredients” tailored to GLP-1 takers. Both offerings debuted last year.
The Vitamin Shoppe’s new product line follows up the retailer’s initial foray into the GLP-1 arena, called Whole Health Rx, which debuted last year. Since GLP-1s require a prescription, visitors to the retailer’s website can use a portal maintained by telehealth provider WellSync to connect with a doctor. The medications themselves arrive in the patients’ mailboxes, but concern over the side effects should, ideally, get them to visit stores.
“This is absolutely another way to get customers in our doors,” Gonzalez said.
And the Vitamin Shoppe could use them, according to retail analyst Bruce Winder, in light of its holding company Franchise Group filing Chapter 11 last year.
“The GLP drug movement is massive and has disrupted a number of markets,” said Winder. “Selling vitamins to [GLP-1 patients] and the Whole Health Rx service allows The Vitamin Shoppe to differentiate itself through value-added services. This doesn’t mean the chain is in the clear, but this may be a step in the right direction.”
Indeed, though the mushrooming popularity of GLP-1s can represent an opportunity for consumer brands, it’s not a panacea.
In December of 2023, Weight Watchers launched its own GLP-1 program, which included an array of supportive features like “a list of GLP-1 go-to foods” and weight coaches available 24/7, while physicians at WeightWatchers Clinics wrote the prescriptions.
But it wasn’t enough to keep the company from filing bankruptcy on May 7. Paradoxically, competition from the weight-loss drugs was a contributing factor in its fiscal woes. (Weight Watchers did not respond to a request for comment).
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how The Vitamin Shoppe’s new assemblage of GLP-1 support nutrients will land with customers, but the chain’s existing stock of 6,000 products in stores and 10,000 online means that, in a sense, it’s already hedged its bets.
“We have a wealth of product offerings from sports nutrition to energy drinks as well as every kind of every kind of supplement that that one can imagine,” Golzalez said.
