Table of Contents
I. Company Overview
a. Executive Summary
b. History
c. Figureheads and Leaders
d. Mission Statement and Core Values
e. Headquarters and Locations
f. Company Information
g. Company Culture and Benefits
h. Achievements and Honors
i. Branding
II. Company Past and Current Strategies

History

Walgreens Co is the largest dug retailing chain in the nation. The first Walgreens store ever was just a drugstore at first. It all started in the year 1901 in Chicago by Charles Walgreen. His father lent him $2,000 in order to place a down payment for the drugstore. In 1909, he sold half interest in his first drug store and bought his second drugstore. The second drugstore served lunch and had a large soda fountain. About seven years later, seven stores joined under the corporate name Walgreen Co. Due to the fact of alcohol prohibition the 1920s was a successful time for Walgreen. Although alcohol was illegal prescription whiskey was available and was sold by Walgreen. Four years after that they opened up 20 more stores in Chicago and had an increase in sales of $1.55 million. In the year 1922, Walgreen Co introduced a malted milkshake which led to the future establishment of ice cream manufacturing plants. The firm was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1927. About two years later they opened up about 397 stores in 87 cities and had a $47 million increase on sales. During the Great Depression Walgreen Co did reasonably well, although their sales dropped between 1931 and 1935. In 1939 Charles Walgreen, Sr., founder of Walgreen Co died and left his son Charles R. Walgreen took over the Walgreen chain until his retirement. About 1 year later in 1940 Walgreen had about 489 stores. During World War II all the unprofitable stores were closed. When Walgreen Jr. retired Charles “Cork” Walgreen III took over in the 1950s, when the company became modernized and switched to barcode scanning. Because Walgreen was a leader in self-service merchandising, the 1950s saw a key change in the way drugstores did business. Walgreen opened up their first self-serve store in the year 1952 and by the end of 1953 they had about 22 self-serve stores. Throughout the next 10 years older stores were replaced with the larger self-served stores which increased the total number of stores about 10% and sales grew more than 90%. The Healthcare Plus subsidiary began at Walgreen in 1992. They would provide prescriptions by mail. In 1999 the company opened up a full-service pharmacy online and increased in the number of stores across the country in the year 2000. In 2006 digital photo services and printer cartridge-refill programs were introduces to Walgreen. That year they also acquired the Happy Harry’s chain in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. By the year 2007 seven Walgreen opened its first store in Hawaii, Honolulu and opened their 6,000 store in New Orleans, Louisiana. That is when Walgreen started to dig deeper into specialty pharmacy market. In December it acquired the specialty pharmacy business of McKesson Corp., which included McKesson Specialty Pharmacy in Pittsburgh and IVPCARE, a specialty pharmacy focused on reproductive health based in Texas, with operations in California, Massachusetts, and Missouri. In 2008 Walgreen purchased about 20 stores in Puerto Rico from Farmacias El Amal. In July of the year 2009 the company opened its first drugstore in Alaska making its coverage of all 50 US states complete. As the years went by Walgreen increased in sales and stores. On February 17, 2010 Walgreen announced their plans to acquire New York City area chain Duane Reade, where they still operate in New York City but as Duane Reade, all stores near existing Walgreens were closed. By the year 2011, they acquired drugstore.com to extend the reach of its business online. They also added beauty.com, skinstore.com and visiondirect.com to their online business. Walgreen operated about 8,000 stores and expanded throughout Guam and Puerto Rico. By August 18, 2011 they introduced their “Nice!” store brand of food and household products. By 2012 Walgreen entered an agreement to acquire Mid-South drug store chain operating under the USA drug, Super D Drug, May’s Drug, Med-X, and Drug Warehouse banners. The deal was expected to be finalized by September 1, 2012.