Drug Stores

Leader Drug Stores

Leader Drug Stores is a network of over 3,100 independently owned and operated pharmacies. It has a business affiliation with Cardinal Health, which sponsors the network and owns the name "Leader Drug Stores". Cardinal Health also owns the franchise chain The Medicine Shoppe. It operates like a retailers' cooperative, though it is not owned by its members.

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Cunningham Drug Stores Ltd.

Cunningham Drug Stores Ltd. (Cunningham's for short) was a regional Canadian pharmacy chain, based in British Columbia.

Cunningham's was established in 1911 when New Westminster native George Cunningham, a druggist formerly employed by the Woodwards department store chain, opened his first store in Vancouver in February that year, at the corner of Denman and Nelson Streets. Cunningham expanded his chain in September 1939 when he acquired the Vancouver Drug Stores chain, nearly tripling the size of the Cunningham's chain from 12 stores to 35.

At its peak, 52 drug stores in British Columbia would bear the Cunningham's name. Cunningham himself later became a Vancouver city councillor from 1955 to 1957, and served as chair of the University of British Columbia Board of Governors.

Cunningham died in Palm Springs, California on March 7, 1965 at age 76, and the drug store chain bearing his name would eventually be sold to the expanding Shoppers Drug Mart in 1970.

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Perry Drug Stores

Perry Drug Stores was an American retail pharmacy chain founded in 1957 in the city of Pontiac, Michigan, United States. At its peak in the 1980s, Perry operated more than 200 drug stores, primarily in the state of Michigan, as well as 200 Auto Works auto parts stores and fourteen A. L. Price discount health and beauty aids outlets.

In 1995, Perry Drug Stores was bought out by Rite Aid, a drugstore based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. The Perry chain, which at the time comprised 224 stores, was the largest acquisition ever made by Rite Aid. In addition, this acquisition brought the Rite Aid name to the Detroit area for the first time.

Founder Jack A. Robinson opened his first Perry Drug Store in 1957 on Perry Street in Pontiac, Michigan. Over time, the chain expanded to become a prominent drugstore in the Detroit area, competing with local chains such as Arbor Drugs and Cunningham Drugs.

In 1978, a prototype Perry store was opened, featuring an expanded sporting goods line, a home and automotive center, and live pets for sale. Auto Works, an automotive parts retail chain, was introduced in 1982.

Twenty-six Cunningham Drug locations were spun off by the chain's owner into a new chain called Apex Drug. By 1985, the Apex Drug locations and several other Cunningham locations were acquired by Perry, while the Cunningham locations in Florida remained in operation.

In 1989, Perry Drug expanded into the Chicago, Illinois market for the first time. (The chain had previously tried to enter Chicago through a failed acquisition of DeKoven Drugs.) A year later, these stores were sold to businessmen Fred Barney and Bill Cartwright, two veteran businessmen who formed the Chicago operations into Perry Drug Chicago.

Several units in Michigan were acquired in 1990 from Revco. This acquisition made Perry the dominant drugstore chain in the Detroit area and expanded Perry's presence to the Upper Peninsula for the first time.

Perry Drug Stores posted a brief period of sharp declines in sales in 1990, with locations in Indiana and Wisconsin being sold off. By 1993, the Perry Drug Chicago locations were re-acquired and liquidated.

After its out-of-state operations were sold, Perry continued to expand its presence within Michigan. Many locations were remodeled to the chain's "store of the '90s" format; in addition, an online computer system called PerryLink was implemented at all stores, allowing for customers to have their prescriptions filled at any location.

Rite Aid, a drugstore chain based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, acquired twenty-five locations from Hook's Drug Stores in 1994, subsequently selling nine of the locations to Perry. One year later, Rite Aid acquired all 224 of Perry Drug Stores' locations, including the former Hook's Drugs locations. The acquisition of Perry Drug Stores in 1995 was the largest acquisition made by Rite Aid. It also brought Rite Aid to the Detroit area, where it previously had no stores.

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Genovese Drug Stores

Genovese Drug Stores was a pharmacy chain that was acquired by Eckerd in 1998. It was prevalent in the New York City-Long Island area, including northern New Jersey. along with Fairfield County Connecticut.

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IDL Drug Stores

IDL Drug Stores or the Independent Drugstores League was a cooperative of independent drugstores that disbanded in the late 1960s. Several drugstores retain the IDL name, including Seebers IDL in Newport, Washington and Schneiders IDL in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Among their promotional items were baseball trading cards.

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Hook's Drug Stores

Hook's Drug Stores was an Indianapolis, Indiana-based drug store chain which was founded in 1900 by John A. Hook. The chain flourished throughout central Indiana for most of the 20th-century before being acquired by Revco which was in turn acquired by CVS. Many former Hook's locations are now CVS pharmacies.

In October 1900, pharmacist John A. Hook opened the first Hook's Drug Store in an Indianapolis German community at the corner of South East and Prospect Streets. A second location opened at the corner of New Jersey and East Washington Streets and Hook added Edward F. Roesch as a partner. By 1912, the chain had expanded to twelve stores. Roesch became president of the company in 1943 upon Hook's death. In 1956, following Roesch's death in a traffic accident, John Hook's son, August F. “Bud” Hook, assumed leadership of the company. The chain added 150 new stores between 1946 and 1972.

In 1985, The Kroger Company outbid Rite Aid, which had attempted a hostile takeover, and acquired the Hook's chain. Kroger divested itself of Hook's a year later, however, and Hook's became a division of the privately-held Hook’s-SupeRx.

Hook's-SupeRx acquired the New England-based Brooks Pharmacy chain in 1988. Hooks-SupeRx stores traded under three different names - Hook's Drug and SupeRx in the Midwest and Brooks Pharmacy in New England. Hook's-SupeRx was acquired by Revco in 1994. Revco was subsequently acquired by CVS in 1997. Many former Hook's locations are now CVS Pharmacies.

Until 2007, Brooks was the only former Hook's brand which lived on, as a division of the Canadian-based Jean Coutu Group. Rite Aid bought the Brooks chain from Jean Coutu in 2007, and will eliminate the Brooks name.

A restored 19th-century Hook's drug store stands at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and is a popular attraction at the annual Indiana State Fair. It was originally built in 1849 and has been restored with authentic 19th century cabinets.

Columbus: On Sawmill Road in the old Kroger Plaza, is now used as the CVS/Pharmacy Regional Headquarters. Was a SuperX store, became Revco, then CVS. It sat empty until the headquarters moved in after CVS built a new freestanding store just down the street.

In 2000, the great-grandchildren of John A. Hook opened Hook's Apothecary in Evansville, Indiana. The store specializes in compounding prescriptions. It has no corporate ties to CVS.

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Rexall

Rexall was the name of a chain of North American drugstores, as well as the name of their store-branded products. Today it is the name of over-the-counter drugs and drugstores in Canada and health supplements in the United States.

In 1902 Louis K. Liggett persuaded 40 independent drug stores to invest $4,000 in a retailers' cooperative called United Drug Stores, which sold products under the Rexall name. After World War I, the cooperative established a franchise arrangement whereby independently owned retail outlets adopted the Rexall trade name and sold Rexall products. The company was based in Boston, in an area now occupied by Northeastern University.

Justin Whitlock Dart, heir to the Walgreen's drugstore chain, took control of Boston-based United Drug Company in 1943. The chain operated under the Liggett, Owl, Sonta, and Rexall brands, which Dart rebranded under the Rexall name.

Rexall gained national exposure through its sponsorship of two famous classic American radio programs of the 1940s and 1950's: Amos and Andy and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Both shows were often opened by an advertisement from an announcer portraying "your Rexall family druggist," and included the catch phrase "Good health to all from Rexall." They also sponsored the Jimmy Durante Show and there are references by character Mr. Peavey in some of the Great Gildersleeve radio shows.

In 1946, United-Rexall Drug Inc. purchased the Renfro chain in Texas. It also launched the Owl Superstores chain. In 1958, the Rexall Drug Company was the largest U.S. drug store franchise, with 11,158 stores (for comparison, there are fewer than 12,000 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. today). Time Magazine noted that 2/3 of its stores were in areas where 1/3 of the population lived. However, this comprised more than 20% of all drug stores in the United States.

Dart sold his stake in Rexall in 1978. Dart had acquired stakes in West Bend, Duracell, Hobart, Tupperware, Ralph Wilson Plastics, and Archer Glass, which were collectively known as Dart Industries (later Premark International).

By the late 1950s, Rexall's business model of unitary franchised stores, with each store owned independently by the local pharmacist, was already coming under attack by the discount chains, such as Thrift Drug and Eckerds. These well-financed corporate entities were able to drive down costs by means of block purchasing, and were focused on growth. By 1977, the value of the Rexall business had deteriorated to the point that it was sold to private investors for $16 million. The investors divested the company owned stores, though existing franchise retailers were able to keep the Rexall name. However, these tended to be weaker stores, and very few kept the name as time progressed. The company did continue to distribute vitamins, health foods, and plastic items.

Sundown, a maker of primarily suntan lotions, founded in 1976 by Carl DeSantis, marketed via mail-order, on store shelves, and other venues, including multi-level marketing. Sundown acquired the Rexall trademark in 1985 and continued to produce nutritional supplements and remedies under the new name Rexall-Sundown, with no relationship to the remaining chain of Rexall drugstores, nor to the Canadian maker of medicines and sundries.

As Rexall-Sundown, the company's market share grew rapidly, with revenues from the flagship product Bios Life leading all sales. RXSD went public in 1997 on the NASDAQ. It was acquired for US$1.8 billion in May 2000 by Royal Numico, a Netherlands-based company which, at that time, also owned General Nutrition Centers (GNC chainstores) and Met-Rx, among other holdings.

Numico split up the Rexall divisions and divested them in 2003, selling the name Rexall-Sundown to NBTY, a US vitamin company, and the Unicity Network division to Activated Holdings, a privately held company.

Katz Group Canada Ltd.'s exclusive private label brand, Rexall Brand, is available at any Rexall family of pharmacies location, as well as its national mail order pharmacy, Meditrust Pharmacy, making Rexall Brand one of the most accessible health care brands in Canada.

Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, is the home of both the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League, and the Edmonton Rush of the National Lacrosse League. The Katz Group Canada, which sells Rexall products in Canada, purchased the naming rights to the arena. The Rexall Centre tennis courts are in Toronto, Canada. Rexall is also the title sponsor of the Rexall Edmonton Indy IndyCar race at Edmonton City Centre Airport.

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