There was only one Walgreens Pharmacy when i got here in Mt Pleasant 3 years ago, now they are building another one at the other end of our small town. It encourages me to research the owner or founder who i knew was from Illinois. Here is the story of Walgreens Drug Store...
Company history
Charles Rudolph Walgreen (October 9, 1873 – December 11, 1939) was a United States drugstore businessman. He was born in Galesburg, Illinois (which is in Knox County), the son of Swedish emigrants, on October 9, 1873.
As a young adult, he lost part of a finger in an accident at a shoe factory. The doctor who treated him persuaded him to become an apprentice for a local druggist. In 1893, Walgreen went to Chicago and became a registered pharmacist.
At the start of the Spanish-American War, Walgreen enlisted with the 1st Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. While serving in Cuba, he contracted malaria and yellow fever, which continued to plague him for the rest of his life.
After his discharge, Walgreen returned to Chicago and worked as a pharmacist for Issac Blood. In 1901, when Blood retired, Walgreen bought the store from him. He soon acquired other stores, and built his famous chain of pharmacies — Walgreens drugstores.
Walgreen introduced several new innovations into the drug store industry: lunch counters, soda fountains, and malted milk. By 1927, Walgreen had established 110 stores
A typical Walgreens Pharmacy.The Walgreens chain began as a drug store owned by Charles R. Walgreen, Sr.[6] By 1915, there were five Walgreen drugstores. He added several improvements to the stores such as soda fountains and luncheon service. He also began to make his own line of drug products and was then able to control the quality of the items and sell them at lower prices. By 1916, 19 stores were in operation, all in Chicago. And in that same year, all the stores were consolidated under Walgreen Co. The 1920s was a very successful decade for Walgreens. In 1921, the company opened stores outside of residential areas and also introduced the malted milk shake in 1922. Walgreens also established its very own ice cream manufacturing plants to match the demand for ice cream at that time. By the mid 1920s, there were about 65 stores with an annual sale of 1.2 million dollars. By this time, Walgreens had expanded into other states like Wisconsin, Missouri, and Minnesota. By 1930, there were 397 stores in 87 cities with annual sales of 4 million dollars. The company did not really suffer from the Stock Market Crash and Great Depression. By 1934, Walgreens was operating in 33 states with over 600 stores. After Charles Walgreen Sr. died, his son Charles R. Walgreen Jr. took over and ran 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 company. Charles "Cork" R. Walgreen III took over after Jr's retirement in the early 1970s, and brought the company through many modern initiatives, including the switch to a computer inventory based system (bar code scanning). The Walgreen family was not involved in senior management of the company for a short period following Charles' retirement. In 1995, Kevin P. Walgreen was made a vice-president and promoted to Senior Vice President - Store Operations in 2006.[7]
On July 12, 2006, David Bernauer stepped down as CEO of Walgreens and was replaced by company president, Jeff Rein. Holding degrees in accounting and pharmacy from the University of Arizona, Rein was a pharmacist, store manager, district manager, and treasurer prior to being named Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Greg Wasson, former President of Walgreens Health Services, was named President and Chief Operations Officer
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Topic: Walgreens Pharmacy Founder (Read 1330 times)