Imagine finding books in a library before the Dewey Decimal System was created. We take it for granted today, but most book placement systems in use before the late 1800s were completely arbitrary and inefficient. Did you know before the 1980s, so too was the categorization of healthcare products in drugstores?

That’s why 40+ years ago, HRG developed a proprietary classification system called Fine Lines that organizes the vast array of products into categories, subcategories, and product types (also called segments). Product industries included are:

• Health, beauty, and wellness (HBW),
• Home health care (HHC),
• General merchandise (GM), and
• Prescription (Rx)
  
  

This unique classification system was quickly adopted by drug wholesalers, chain and independent retailers, and brand manufacturers who rely on it to help them improve product organization for warehousing inventory, ordering systems, and reporting, as well as merchandising, space planning, and store layouts.

The Fine Line system is reviewed and updated on a semi-annual basis to accommodate consumer market changes, emerging categories and subcategories, and to reflect merchandising trends. We also solicit feedback from our wholesaler and supplier clients to ensure that products are logically placed.

The supply chain runs more efficiently and effectively when products are categorized in a standardized system. With items correctly and consistently classified from the warehouse to a store’s POS system, in-store data tracking, analytics, reporting, and communications are all accomplished with much greater ease. The ultimate benefit of implementing Fine Lines is that it improves consumers’ overall in-store shopping experience because it organizes product types for proper placement at shelf based on where shoppers would look for them.