San Diego, California-based GreatCall, the company that makes smartphones and flip phones for seniors, has partnered with Rite Aid to distribute Great Call products in more than 4,000 Rite Aid pharmacies. In addition, as an extra facet to the partnership, the Touch3, GreatCall's current smartphone model, will now come with the Rite Aid pharmacy app pre-loaded.
“Today’s older adults are redefining the way we age, and GreatCall’s mission is to provide them with usable solutions to keep them thriving,” Bill Yates, CMO of GreatCall, said in a statement. “Through Rite Aid, a company that shares our mission, we are bringing this vision to life. This is a critical step in a broader active aging strategy.”
By mid-October, Rite Aid customers will be able to buy GreatCall's three major products: Touch3, the company's newest smartphone; Jitterbug5, their latest flip phone model, and Splash, the waterproof emergency response device the company launched in May. The devices will be set up in custom displays that include demo phones and brochures.
Rite Aid is not the first pharmacy to offer GreatCall products; Walmart and Publix pharmacies have already had them available, as do Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, RadioShack, Sears, and Shopko. Of course they can also be bought directly from GreatCall's website.
GreatCall launched the Touch3 at the beginning of September. Like all GreatCall's products, the $169 smartphone is pitched as an easier-to-use smartphone for seniors, with preloaded apps including health and safety apps Urgent Care, GreatCall Link, MedCoach and 5Star (the company's emergency response app), which require additional, ongoing monthly fees in some cases. Touch3 is an Android smartphone built by Samsung.
"Our customers told us they don’t like to wade through numerous difficult-to-read screens to get to what they want,” CEO Dave Inns said in a statement at the time. “We focused on essentials, so accessing meaningful functions – help, phone, camera and text – is quicker and easier and technology becomes a key part of the solution."
GreatCall's Link app, which launched this past January, is for the caregivers of users of GreatCall's 5Star service. The app shows family members information about the 5Star dedicated device, like whether the device is on or off, the battery level of the device, where the device is on a map, and if the button was pushed. It also provides family members with a record of all calls made from the 5Star device and the status of each interaction with one of GreatCall’s agents.
