Max-Wellness Launches Mini-Max Concept

CLEVELAND — Max-Wellness announced this morning it will
partner with Lake Health, a private community health care provider
in Northeast Ohio, on the launch this summer of a Mini-Max store
concept designed to be located in hospitals and rehab centers.

The new Mini-Max will have a smaller footprint — 600 sq.
ft. — than the health-and-wellness retailer’s first four
stores, which opened in
2010 in two Cleveland locations and in Sarasota and Naples,
Fla. Between 5,000 and 6,000 sq. ft., those stores carry some 7,000
products ranging from nutritionals to footwear and DME including
bath safety, incontinence supplies and mobility aids such as
walkers and wheelchairs.

Lake Health operates two acute care hospitals and 13 other
health care sites, including urgent care and physical therapy
locations, in Lake County, Ohio, near Cleveland. The first Mini-Max
will debut in Lake Health’s West Medical Center, an acute care
hospital in Willoughby, Ohio.

Even though they will be smaller, Max-Wellness CEO Michael Feuer
said “a complete selection of DME will be available” at the new
Mini-Max stores. Feuer co-founded OfficeMax, which he began with
one store in 1988 and sold in 2003 for $1.5 billion.

Max-Wellness and Lake Health officials will collaborate on a
product offering for the Mini-Max that includes “head-to-toe care
tailored to the needs of patients at West Medical Center,”
according to the companies.

Max-Wellness associates will staff the Mini-Max to help patients
and caregivers with products for continuing care after discharge.
The stores will also feature products that should draw hospital
visitors and employees, according to a spokesperson.

“Based on experience gained in this first location at Lake
Health, it will be the model for future Mini-Max stores expected to
open in hospitals throughout the country,” Feuer said.

Wherever a Mini-Max store is located, Max-Wellness may also add
another concept called “Wellness-in-a-Box,” a computerized
dispensing device similar to a vending machine that features
health-and-wellness products.

“This allows wellness products to be available at other
locations within a hospital, near adjacent or nearby medical office
areas of the hospital and outside the Mini-Max during non-store
business hours,” said Feuer. The self-service dispensers are also
slated for urgent care centers, senior living facilities and
airports, with merchandise customized to meet the specific needs of
customers in each particular venue.

Max-Wellness recently launched an e-commerce site and also plans
to add more of its larger brick-and-mortar stores this year, the
chain’s spokesperson said.

For more on Max-Wellness, see “Taking HME to
the Max,” November 2010.