The trend: Older consumers pick up their prescription medicines in person more often, while Gen Z leans into buying Rx drugs online, per M3 MI’s Consumer Health Study of over 20,000 US adults.

Digging into the data: 91% of respondents have purchased a prescription drug at an in-store pharmacy in the last year. But store preferences vary by age group:

• Over half in every age group have gone to a drugstore chain pharmacy like CVS or Walgreens.
• 23% of consumers ages 65+ pick up prescriptions from grocery store pharmacies, compared with only 13% of people ages 18-34.
• Younger people prefer club store pharmacies like Costco and Sam’s Club, with 23% of consumers ages 18-34 and 22% of people ages 35-49 picking up prescriptions there. Only 8% of consumers ages 50-64 and 6% of those ages 65+ use those big box stores.

Online purchasing of prescription drugs skews younger—with the exception of mail orders.