Walgreens facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Walgreen Company

Trade name	Walgreens
Formerly	Walgreen Drug CO (1901–31) Walgreen Drug Stores (1931–48) Walgreen's (1948–55)
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	1901; 123 years ago (1901) in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Founder	Charles Rudolph Walgreen
Headquarters	200 Wilmot Road, Deerfield, Illinois , United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Stefano Pessina (Executive Chairman) Tim Wentworth (CEO) Tracey Brown (President)
Products	Drug store Pharmacy
Parent	Walgreens Boots Alliance

Walgreens is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States, behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, and photo services. It was founded in Chicago in 1901, and is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois. On December 31, 2014, Walgreens and Switzerland-based Alliance Boots merged to form a new holding company, Walgreens Boots Alliance. Walgreens became a subsidiary of the new company, which retained its Deerfield headquarters and trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol WBA.

Name

The company was founded as the Walgreen Drug Co., and did business under that name from 1901 to 1931. It was known as Walgreen Drug Stores from 1931 to 1948, and Walgreen's from 1948 to 1955. In 1955 the apostrophe was dropped from the name on retail outlets, which began using the "Walgreens" name.

History

Early "Walgreen Drugs" sign still in use in San Antonio, Texas

Walgreens began in 1901, with a small food front store on the corner of Bowen and Cottage Grove Avenues in Chicago, owned by Dixon, Illinois native Charles R. Walgreen. By 1913, Walgreens had grown to four stores on Chicago's South Side. It opened its fifth in 1915 and four more in 1916. By 1919, there were 20 stores in the chain.

Logo used from 2005 to 2020.

As a result of alcohol prohibition, the 1920s were a successful time for Walgreens. Although alcohol was illegal, Walgreens sold prescription whiskey. This prescribed alcohol was sold at inflated price, which was much higher than the pricing at the bathtub or the speakeasy. In 1922, the company introduced a malted milkshake, which led to its establishing ice cream manufacturing plants. A Walgreens employee named Ivar Coulson modified the basic malted milk recipe by adding scoops of vanilla ice cream. The milkshake was sold at $0.20 and Walgreens became the place to "hang out". The next year, Walgreens began opening stores away from residential areas. In the mid-1920s, there were 44 stores with annual sales of $1,200,000 combined. Walgreens had also expanded by then into Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. By 1930, it had 397 stores with annual sales of $4,000,000. This expansion partly was attributed to selling prescribed alcohol, mainly whiskey, which Walgreen often stocked under the counter, as accounted in Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.

The stock market crash in October 1929 and subsequent Great Depression did not greatly affect the company. By 1934, Walgreens was operating 601 stores in 30 states. After Walgreen died in 1939, his son Charles R. Walgreen Jr. took over the chain until his retirement. The Charles R. Walgreen Jr. years were relatively prosperous but lacked the massive expansion seen in the early part of the century. In 1946, Walgreens purchased Sanborns, one of Mexico's largest pharmacy and department store chains, from Frank Sanborn (Walgreens sold Sanborns to Grupo Carso in 1982). Charles "Cork" R. Walgreen III took over after Walgreen Jr.'s retirement in the early 1950s and modernized the company by switching to barcode scanning. The company also created larger-sized Walgreens Superstores and purchased the Globe Discount City chain of big-box stores from United Mercantile, Inc. in the 1960s. The Walgreen family was not involved in senior management of the company for a short time after Walgreen III retired. In the 1980s Walgreens owned and operated a chain of casual family restaurants/pancake houses called Wag's. Walgreens sold most of these to Marriott Corp. in 1988, and by 1991 the chain was out of business. In 1986, Walgreens acquired the MediMart chain from Stop & Shop. Kevin P. Walgreen was made a vice-president in 1995 and promoted to senior vice president of store operations in 2006.

21st-century

A Walgreens pharmacy in Murphy, North Carolina in 2023

2000s

On July 12, 2006, David Bernauer stepped down as CEO of Walgreens and was replaced by company president Jeff Rein, who was later named chief executive officer and chairman of the board. That year, Walgreens acquired the Happy Harry's chain in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. On October 10, 2008, Rein abruptly quit as CEO and was replaced by Alan G. McNally as chairman and acting CEO. On January 26, 2009, Gregory Wasson was named CEO effective February 1, 2009.

2010s

In 2010, Walgreens acquired New York City-area chain Duane Reade for $1.075 billion, including debt, and continued to use the Duane Reade name on some stores in the New York City metropolitan area. In March 2011, Walgreens acquired Drugstore.com for $409 million. On June 19, 2012, Walgreens paid $6.7 billion for a 45% interest in Alliance Boots. That year, Walgreens acquired Mid-South drugstore chain operating under the USA Drug, Super D Drug, May's Drug, Med-X, and Drug Warehouse banners.

In 2011 Walgreens announced it would end its relationship with Express Scripts, a prescription benefits manager. A coalition of minority groups, led by Al Sharpton's National Action Network, sent letters urging CEO Gregory Wasson to reconsider. Groups sending letters were National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial Equality, Hispanic Leadership Fund and others. In 2012, Walgreens announced that it would continue to participate in Express Scripts.

On September 10, 2013, Walgreens announced it had acquired Kerr Drug. In August 2014, Walgreens purchased the remaining 55% of Alliance Boots. The combined company became known as the Walgreens Boots Alliance and was headquartered in Chicago. In December of that year, Walgreens purchased the Almus Pharmaceutical generic brand. Also that year, Walgreens acquired Farmacias Benavides. On July 28, 2016, Walgreens announced it would shut down Drugstore.com, as well as Beauty.com, to focus on its own Walgreens.com website. On September 19, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved Walgreens' fourth attempt to purchase Rite Aid, with 1,932 stores, for $4.38 billion.

2020s

In February 2020, Walgreens announced the appointment of Richard Ashworth as president, but he left within the year. Before the appointment, he served as president of operations for Walgreens.

Walgreens location in Neptune Beach, Florida in 2017

Corporate operations

Walgreens's corporate headquarters is in Deerfield, Illinois. Walgreens has had a technology office in Chicago since 2010. It serves as their digital hub.

In November 2010, Walgreens filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the Wegmans supermarket chain, claiming the "W" in the Wegman's logo was too similar to Walgreens's. The suit was settled in April 2011, with Wegmans agreeing to discontinue use of its "W" logo by June 2012, although the supermarket retained the right to use the "Wegmans" name in script. According to Jo Natale, Wegmans director of media relations, "The cost of making relatively minor changes to a limited number of products was much less than the cost of litigating this case to the end."

In the summer of 2014, a corporate relocation to Switzerland was considered as part of a merger with Alliance Boots, a European drugstore chain. This drew controversy as many consumers felt that it was an attempt at tax inversion. On August 5, 2014, Walgreens announced that it would not relocate its headquarters.

As of June 2023, the company operated almost 9,000 stores in the US. It announced it was closing 150 locations in the US (plus 300 in the UK) at the end of the month.

Store model

A Walgreens "corner drugstore", located in a Marriott street-level retail space, on the corner of a heavily trafficked intersection in Washington, D.C.

Walgreens stores were once connected to local groceries. In Chicago, their flagship market, they teamed up with Eagle Food Centers or Dominick's Finer Foods, usually with a "walkthru" to the adjoining store and often sharing personnel. This concept was instated to compete with the popular dual-store format used by the chief competitor, Jewel-Osco/Albertsons-Sav-On. They eventually ended the relationship with Eagle and focused primarily on a connection to Dominick's stores. PharmX-Rexall filled the vacated Walgreen locations joined to Eagle stores.

In its 2009 business model, Walgreens are freestanding corner stores, with the entrance on the street with the most traffic flow, figuratively making it a "corner drugstore" similar to how many independent pharmacies evolved. Many stores have a drive-through pharmacy.

The interior of a Walgreens in Orlando, Florida

Most freestanding stores have a similar look and layout, including a bigger and more spacious layout than certain stores within major cities. Newer buildings have a more modern design than older stores. Some stores in major cities, such as New York and Chicago, have multiple floors, most notably their flagship stores. Behind the front registers are tobacco products and alcoholic beverages. Some stores do not sell these products under state laws. Stores usually have a beauty counter near the cosmetics, with busier stores having a beauty consultant. Most stores have a photo department, either behind the front register or in a separate part of the store. There are self-serve photo kiosks near the photo department, where customers can print photos and photo products. Most stores have a pharmacy, usually in the back, where people can drop off and pick up prescriptions and purchase certain drugs.

Brands

See also

In Spanish: Walgreens para niños

• Alliance Boots
• CVS Pharmacy
• Rite Aid
• Walgreen Coast