Charles Walgreen bought his first drug store in the mid-1920s. Ten years later Walgreen owned a number of stores in the Chicago area. The successful businessman gave something back to the city by participating in the 1933 Century of Progress Fair. Shown here is the Walgreen Building at the fair.

Walgreens: Always a Step Ahead

Angie Banicki
Oregon High School, Oregon

Charles Walgreen found himself thrown into the drugstore business at a young age when he lost his middle finger in a stitching-machine accident. Although he hated the job in the beginning, as the years went by, he kept finding himself in the midst of prescriptions and customers, and he grew to enjoy it. Walgreen's business has had a major impact on Illinois with its new ideas, growing fads, and friendly customer relations.

Charles Walgreen, the man who started it all, had a rough life, and he experienced a lot before making his store what is today. At sixteen, Walgreen attended Dixon Business College for a year and then struggled through various jobs, including employment at the small-town drugstore. Charles Walgreen was an outgoing youth who would much rather be having fun with his friends than selling prescriptions. Ready to prove himself to the world, Walgreen left Dixon with twenty dollars in his pocket and headed for the Windy City.

Walgreen started at the bottom of the ladder when it came to the drugstore industry, but he slowly made his way up to the top, developing the nation's largest pharmacy chain. Walgreen stumbled upon his first job reading the Chicago Tribune. Rosenfield's drugstore needed a clerk for five dollars a week; Charles was hired on the spot. However, that position lasted only briefly, as did the similar positions that followed. An important turning point in Charles's career was when he began working for William Valentine. Walgreen set out to prove to this man how hard he could work. His persistence paid off when Valentine insisted that Walgreen purchase the store: "Charlie you were the best clerk I ever had and I really want you to have that store. Think it over." This was Walgreen's second investment; the first was the Cottage Grove-Bowen store.

Walgreen started incorporating all his ideas into making a successful business. One example of Charles's customer service occurred when a customer would call with an order. Walgreen immediately sent his handy man to make and deliver the prescription while he kept chatting with the person until their order arrived. This practice kept his customers, and they spread the word. Walgreen was also creative in establishing attractive displays that not only brought more business but sold more products. Charles also brought in the soda and ice cream fountains and devised a new, richer brand of ice cream that attracted more customers. His business was taking off, and little did he know he would soon own a chain of pharmacies.

By 1926 Walgreen's business was beginning to

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flourish; stores were popping up everywhere. There were ninety-two stores in the Chicago area alone, and their impact on Illinois was incredible. "Meet me at Walgreens for a shake and a sandwich" became popular words for people shopping in the famous Chicago Loop. Today, Walgreens employs more than seventy-three thousand people.

Walgreens was the first drugstore chain to use radio advertising, and in 1933 it sponsored the Chicago Cubs on WGN radio. Years later the "Walgreens Extra Inning" was broadcast on television after White Sox and Cubs games. Walgreens became a household name in the pharmacy business.

Charles Walgreen contributed greatly to his enterprise and to his community. He started a foundation at the University of Chicago with $550,000 in stock. Also, upon his death he left donations to six churches in Dixon and Chicago.

Today Walgreens "accounts for more than seven percent of all U.S. retail prescription drug volume," writes one business historian. Technology has made Walgreens even more efficient and successful. It has an online computer network that takes prescription refills over the phone twenty-four hours a day. Walgreens has grown into a booming business that will continue to help set standards for a highly dependable pharmacy.—[From Toddi Gutner, "We need you, you need us (Walgreen Co.)" Forbes, May 8, 1995; Herman Kogan and Rick Kogan, Pharmacy to the Nation; Kathleen Magidan and Julia Flynn, "Portrait of the Boss," Business Week, Oct. 12, 1992; Susan Scherreik, "Steady Stocks to Anchor Your Portfolio," Money Forecast, 1996; Walgreens Web Page, "A Brief History of Walgreens," Internet, 1996.]

16 ILLINOIS HISTORY / DECEMBER 1996