; 115 years ago 1901 chicago illinois u.s. founder charles rudolph walgreen headquarters 200 wilmot road deerfield illinois united states number of locations 8 177 1 area served united states key people james a. skinner executive chairman alex gourlay president jonathan neal shift lead 7177 products drug store pharmacy parent walgreens boots alliance website walgreens.com the walgreen company walgreens or sometimes archaically walgreen is an american company which operates 2 the second largest chain in the united states of america behind cvs health . it specializes in filling prescriptions health and wellness products health information and photo services . 3 as of february 29 2016 the company operated 8 177 stores in all 50 states the district of columbia puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands . it was founded in chicago illinois in 1901 . the walgreens headquarters office is in the chicago suburb of deerfield illinois . in 2014 the company agreed to purchase the remaining 55 % of switzerland based alliance boots that it did not already own to form a global business . under the terms of the purchase the two companies merged to form a new holding company walgreens boots alliance inc. on december 31 2014 . walgreens became a subsidiary of the new company which retains its deerfield headquarters and trades on the nasdaq under the symbol wba . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 company history 1.2 21st century expansion 1.3 contributions to popular culture 2 corporate operations 3 store model 4 disability inclusion initiative 5 related ventures 6 consumer record 6.1 prescriptions 6.2 allegations of discrimination 6.3 medicaid 6.4 express scripts 6.5 use of proprietary drugs 6.6 distribution of oxycodone 6.7 sale of tobacco 7 see also 8 references 8.1 bibliography 9 external links history edit company history edit early walgreen drugs sign still in use in san antonio texas walgreens began in 1901 with a drug store on the corner of bowen ave and cottage grove in chicago owned by galesburg native charles r. walgreen sr. 5 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 . as a result of alcohol prohibition the 1920s was a successful time for walgreens . although alcohol was illegal prescription whiskey was available and sold by walgreens . 6 in 1922 the company introduced a malted milkshake which led to it establishing ice cream manufacturing plants . the next year walgreen began opening stores away from residential areas . in the mid 1920s there were 44 stores with annual sales of 1 200 000 . walgreens had expanded into minnesota missouri and wisconsin . by 1930 it had 397 stores with annual sales of us 4 000 000 . this expansion partly was attributed to selling alcohol mainly whiskey which walgreen often stocked under the counter as accounted in daniel okrent s last call the rise and fall of prohibition . 7 the stock market crash in october 1929 and the subsequent great depression did not greatly affect the company . in 1934 walgreens was operating in 30 states with 601 stores . after charles walgreen sr. died in 1939 his son charles r. walgreen took over the chain until his retirement . the charles r. walgreen years were relatively prosperous but lacked the massive expansion seen in the early part of the century . 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 walgreen family was not involved in senior management of the company for a short time following walgreen iii s retirement . in 1986 it acquired the medimart chain from stop & shop . 8 in 1995 kevin p. walgreen was made a vice president and promoted to senior vice president store operations in 2006 . 9 walgreens logo until 2006 . on july 12 2006 david bernauer stepped down as ceo of walgreens 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 . on october 10 2008 rein abruptly quit as ceo replaced by alan g. mcnally as chairman and acting ceo . 10 on january 26 2009 gregory wasson was named ceo effective february 1 2009 . 11 21st century expansion edit a neon lit store on canal street in new orleans 2006 walgreens acquired the happy harry s chain in delaware pennsylvania maryland and new jersey . 12 october 2007 walgreens opened its 6 000th store in new orleans louisiana . 13 january 2008 walgreens purchased 20 stores in puerto rico from farmacias el amal . 14 july 2009 walgreens operates in all 50 states and the district of columbia . 15 february 17 2010 walgreens announced plans to acquire new york city area chain duane reade for 1.075 billion including debt . 16 walgreens continues to operate in the new york city metropolitan area as duane reade ; its stores near existing walgreens were closed . citation needed march 24 2011 walgreens acquired drugstore.com for 409 million . drugstore.com in turn owned beauty.com . in 2013 beauty.com was named by internet retailer magazine in its top 100 online retail sites list . 17 18 april 30 2011 walgreens operated 8 169 stores ; it had expanded into guam and puerto rico . citation needed august 18 2011 walgreens introduced its nice store brand of food and household products . fully rolled out in 2012 the nice brand replaced a variety of existing walgreens store brands such as deerfield farms cafe w and others . 19 june 19 2012 walgreens paid 6.7 bn for a 45 % interest in alliance boots . 20 july 5 2012 walgreens entered into 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 . 21 september 10 2013 walgreens announced it acquired kerr drug . 22 august 6 2014 walgreens exercised its option to purchase the remaining 55 % of alliance boots . the combined company is known as the walgreens boots alliance and is headquartered in chicago . 23 24 on october 27 2015 walgreens announced that it would acquire its rival rite aid for 9 per share a deal valued at 9.4 billion pending regulatory and shareholder approval . the deal will result in a merger of two of the united states three largest pharmacy chains . 25 in response to being able to receive approval walgreens said that it would be willing to divest up to 1 000 stores to win regulatory approval for its rite aid purchase . 26 walgreens and rite aid combined own approximately 200 million square feet of retail space in addition to 21 million square feet of office and warehouse space . the two chains operate 12 900 stores in the united states . walgreens operates 13 100 stores across 11 countries . walgreens ceo has stated that there is potentially over 1 billion in savings to be reaped from the merger through synergies . 27 july 28 2016 walgreens announced it would shut down drugstore.com as well as beauty.com in order to focus on its own walgreens.com website . 28 contributions to popular culture edit walgreens claims credit for the popularization of the malted milkshake or at least its version of the malted milkshake invented by ivar pop coulson in 1922 29 although milkshakes and malted milk had been around for some time before . this development coincided with the invention of the electric blender in the same year . in november 2010 walgreens filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the wegmans supermarket chain claiming the w in the wegman s logo is too similar to walgreens . 30 the lawsuit was settled in april 2011 with wegmans agreeing to discontinue use of its w logo by june 2012 although the supermarket retains the right to use the wegmans name in script . 31 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 . 32 the logo for the washington nationals baseball team is similar to the walgreens w ; 33 to date walgreens never challenged the nationals use of their w in a lawsuit . corporate operations edit walgreens has its corporate headquarters in deerfield illinois . 34 35 as of 2009 walgreens employed 5 200 people at its headquarters . 36 in 1987 walgreens employed about 1 100 people at its headquarters which was at the time in an unincorporated area on the west side of deerfield . 37 38 as of 2000 headquarters was still in an unincorporated area in west deerfield township . 39 in the summer of 2014 a corporate relocation to switzerland was considered as part of a merger with alliance boots a european drugstore chain . 40 this drew controversy as many consumers felt that it was an attempt at tax inversion . on august 5 2014 walgreens announced that they would not be relocating their headquarters . store model edit a walgreens on rt. 1 south saugus massachusetts . walgreens stores were originally connected to local groceries . in chicago their flagship market they teamed up with either 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 chief competitor jewel osco albertsons sav on . they eventually ended the relationship with eagle and focused primarily on a connection to the dominick s stores . pharmx rexall filled the vacated walgreen locations joined to eagle stores . a walgreens corner drugstore located in a marriott street level retail space on the corner of a heavily trafficked intersection in washington d.c 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 . some stores have a drive through pharmacy . 41 the store management team usually includes a store manager mgr an executive assistant manager exa and at least one assistant manager mgt . in 2009 walgreens introduced the store team lead stl or non management keyholder position in many of its stores . in 2012 walgreens announced that they would be phasing out the mgt exa and stl positions for the assistant store manager trainee asm t assistant store manager asm and shift leader sfl positions respectively . the new management structure will implement a new structure and payscale that will more closely resemble their competitors to reflect the industry standard . disability inclusion initiative edit in 2002 walgreens senior vice president of supply chain and logistics randy lewis began a program aimed at providing opportunity to the disabled to work side by side with typical workers . the result was the development and opening of two distribution centers whose staff is approximately 40 % disabled . the model was so successful that other companies such as clarks companies na glaxo smith kline best buy and costco have either examined it or placed it under consideration . 42 related ventures edit wag s menu logo circa 1985 walgreens used to own sanborns one of the largest pharmacy and department store chains in mexico . walgreens purchased sanborns from frank sanborn in 1946 and sold it to grupo carso in 1982 . 43