Retail

Dis-Chem rolling out new stores that promise to end long pharmacy queues

Bianke Neethling • 7 May 2026

Dis-Chem is planning a major overhaul of its store base in the coming years, as well as a unique format for all new stores it plans to build from August onwards.

This overhaul is aimed at making customers’ experience with Dis-Chem stores as seamless as possible, whether they use the pharmacy, clinic, or retail segment.

At a launch event for its first new-format store in Melrose Arch on 6 May, Dis-Chem CEO Rui Morais explained that these new stores are intended to be a physical manifestation of the brand’s purpose.

“South Africans have long had to navigate their healthcare alone, moving between disconnected providers and fragmented systems,” he said.

“This store is our answer to that. It is not enough to just stock health products. We want to actively deliver care.”

“When healthcare, pharmacy, financial services and technology work together in one place, we can reach more people, at lower cost, and with better outcomes.”

The new store format was developed by Dis-Chem’s innovation hub, X,bigly labs, and is aimed at improving customers’ experience with the “front door to healthcare” in South Africa – the pharmacies and clinics at Dis-Chem.

Morais explained that, with the new format, the healthcare elements within a Dis-Chem will no longer be ancillary, but the main engagement point within the company’s stores.

Dis-Chem currently has 323 stores in South Africa, with the Melrose Arch store being the 323rd, opened on 7 May. All of these stores have a pharmacy, clinic, and retail segment.

In its previous store formats, Morais explained that these three elements were fragmented, something the new format is aiming to solve.

The solution to this is what Dis-Chem calls a “health hub”, a location in each store that will become the central engagement point for all of Dis-Chem’s services.

From this hub, customers can join the pharmacy queue, book an appointment at the clinic, or chat with a financial advisor about Dis-Chem medical, funeral, or life insurance.

The hub will also centralise reception and admin activities for other segments in the store, including booking, ID confirmation, check-in, consent forms, payments, loyalty programme onboarding, and general enquiries.

Each hub will be staffed by a hub advisor, who can assist clients in finding which services they need to use.

Aside from the hub, Dis-Chem has also made changes to how its clinic and pharmacy are set up, both to improve the client experience and lower the administrative load placed on Dis-Chem pharmacists and clinicians.

The ‘new’ Dis-Chem

For Dis-Chem’s clinic and pharmacy, the company has taken a page out of Checkers Sixty60’s book in how these two segments are set up.

Clients can now engage with Dis-Chem clinics at different levels, starting before they even walk through the door.

Alongside the new store format, Dis-Chem has also launched its revamped app on 7 May, which will allow customers to book a clinic appointment in a half-hour slot.

This, Morais believes, will reduce waiting times at Dis-Chem clients and give clients certainty that they will be seen when they come in to use the clinic.

It should be noted that walk-ins can still come in, and when they do, they will now also know whether they will be seen that day or whether all slots are already filled.

Dis-Chem also plans to include a waiting room in its clinics, with clients no longer required to wait around in the retail segment of the store or at the pharmacy waiting area.

From the waiting room, clients will go to a clinic consultation room, where a phlebotomist (one will be hired for each new store going forward) will handle the administrative healthcare duties previously handled by a nurse.

This includes duties such as taking vital signs, collecting urine samples, drawing blood, and completing patient forms.

Morais said this will free up the nurses’ time to serve more people in a day, as they can focus on client consultations rather than these more administrative-like duties.

Once the patient has seen the phlebotomist, they will be seen by a nurse, who can consult on what the patient may need.

If a client’s case goes beyond the nurse’s scope of expertise, or if a script is needed, the nurse will be able to contact an independent General Practitioner (GP) in the consultation room.

The teledoctor can then consult with the patient – both the patient and doctor will be able to see each other – and write a script if needed, which the patient can then take to the Dis-Chem pharmacy.

For the pharmacy, Dis-Chem has also introduced a new format aimed at making both the client and pharmacist experience better.

The company will introduce a digital ticketing system, where customers can join the queue from the health hub and see exactly where they are in line on a screen by the pharmacy.

In addition, in all new Dis-Chem stores going forward, the wall behind the pharmacist will no longer be where medication is kept.

Instead, it will be kept in a room behind the pharmacy, allowing pharmacists to focus solely on consulting with customers, while stock pickers in the backroom select the relevant medication.

Morais explained that the previous format would waste many pharmacists’ and customers’ time, due to long queues and administrative duties such as searching for and selecting medicine.

The Melrose store

Dis-Chem CEO Rui Morais. Source: Supplied

On 7 May, Dis-Chem launched its first store with this new format in Melrose, close to the X, bigly labs office.

Morais emphasised that this is not a concept store, but rather the blueprint Dis-Chem plans to use for all new stores going forward.

Notably, this does not mean the new stores and revamps of existing stores will look exactly the same as the Melrose location, as the size and shape will need to be accommodated.

However, the basic principles introduced in the Melrose store will be replicated in all new stores starting in August 2026, as well as in future store revamps.

Dis-Chem plans to roll out at least 50 new stores a year, and has ambitious plans to revamp its entire existing store base over the next five years.

While ambitious, Dis-Chem believes this plan is possible and that the savings realised through the new format will improve the company’s return per square meter.

Dis-Chem is also highly optimistic about its Better Rewards loyalty programme, which was revamped in October 2025.

Morais said the relaunched programme has been highly successful, and is already driving better loyalty behaviours from customers, including increases in average trips, basket size, and basket volumes.

In the five months since its launch, Dis-Chem’s Better Rewards programme has returned over R600 million in savings to customers.

Morais said the move away from a points-based system for its loyalty programme is intended to make Dis-Chem known as the “always on” cheapest channel for highly commoditised items like nappies.

This, he said, will improve client loyalty, as they know they can always find the lowest prices for these products at Dis-Chem rather than chasing promotions at whichever retailer is offering them at that point in time.

In line with this, Dis-Chem’s new stores will also offer a more rationalised product selection, with the company aiming to move away from products that do not align with its brand.

This will serve the company well in reconfiguring the format in existing stores and improving the shopping experience by standardising store layouts.

Dis-Chem plans to open a new store, with this new format, at Irene Village Mall on 30 July, and another in the Eastern Cape on 27 August.