The new CVS store format features lower shelves, wide aisles,carpeted areas and color-coded signage to improve ease andaccessibility of shopping. The store also includes a wide-open,curved center aisle that leads shoppers back to the store'spharmacy, its main business. The changes were made after extensiveresearch with its consumers, who are mostly women. CVS' new storeformat also has been introduced in New York and southernCalifornia, and it will serve as the design for all new andremodeled stores.

CVS stores are being built in Andover, Blaine, Maple Grove,Mounds View, Plymouth, White Bear Lake, northeast Minneapolis andSt. Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood. Construction should begin ona Chanhassen location in the next month, and up to six more CVSstores could break ground by next spring, according to officials atBloomington-based United Properties, who is helping the retailerwith its Twin Cities expansion.

CVS hopes it can differentiate itself from competitors such asWalgreens, with nearly 80 stores in the Twin Cities, andMinnetonka-based Snyders with more than 50 Minnesota locations.Besides its Eagan and Coon Rapids stores that opened earlier thismonth, CVS plans to open another eight locations by the end of theyear. Within the next five years, CVS anticipates opening 40 to 50stores in the Twin Cities area, according to company officials.Walgreens officials have said they expect to open about 16 morestores over the next two years in the Twin Cities.