OLD GLIDE ATHLETE's FOOT POWDER WALGREENs TIN LITHO CAN IL PHARMACY DRUG STORE

Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG), d/b/a Walgreens (without an apostrophe), is a large drugstore chain in the United States. The company operates 7,600 drugstores across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides access to consumer goods and services and pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health and Wellness division. Walgreens Health Services offers pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health and Wellness division includes Take Care Health Systems. Walgreens has 7,600 drugstores as of September 30, 2010. Walgreens was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded throughout the United States. Its headquarters is located in the nearby suburb of Deerfield, Illinois.

Company history
A typical Walgreens Pharmacy.The Walgreens chain began in 1901, with a drug store on the corner of Bowen Ave and Cottage Grove, Chicago, Illinois, United States owned by Galesburg native Charles R. Walgreen, Sr. By 1913, 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 1913, 12 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 1923, the company opened stores outside of residential areas and also introduced the malted milk shake in 1922. Walgreens also established its own ice cream manufacturing plants to match the demand for ice cream at that time. By the mid 1920s, there were about 44 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. This expansion can be in part attributed to the collection of bootlegged alcohol, mainly whiskey, which Walgreen would often stock under the counter, as accounted in Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. The company did not really suffer from the Stock Market Crash and Great Depression. By 1934, Walgreens was operating in 30 states with over 601 stores. After Charles Walgreen Sr. died in 1939, 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 century. Charles "Cork" R. Walgreen III took over after Jr's retirement in the early 1950s, 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 1986, it acquired the MediMart chain from Stop & Shop. In 1995, Kevin P. Walgreen was made a vice-president and promoted to Senior Vice President - Store Operations in 2006.

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.

On October 10, 2008, Jeff Rein retired from Walgreens 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.

Recent expansion
In 2006, Walgreens acquired the Happy Harry's chain in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. Walgreen’s opened its 6000th store in New Orleans, Louisiana, in October 2007.

In January 2008 Walgreens purchased 20 locations in Puerto Rico from Farmacias El Amal

As of July 2009, Walgreens has a store in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

On February 17, 2010, Walgreens announced plans to acquire New York City-area chain Duane Reade for $1.075 billion, including debt.

Contributions to popular cultureWalgreens 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, 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.