MGT 101 Business Project-Walgreen
Anisa Alili
Baker College
Part one
A. Explain the purpose of the business
Walgreen operate on a profit basis. Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain with 8,200 locations is a leader in the field with a strong history of expansion and profitability.
Walgreen provide services such as healthcare services for the whole family. Walgreens new computer system for filing prescription, Intercom Plus, links all stores into a single network and represents how advanced technology serves customer’s needs better than any other pharmacy resource. The company is engaged in the retail sale of prescription and non-prescription drugs and general merchandise. General merchandise includes beauty care, personal care, household items, candy, photofinishing, convenience foods and seasonal items.
Walgreen is located in Illinois Chicago. Walgreen is the largest chain in the United States with more than 8,200 locations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
B. Explore the history of the business
The company had its origin in 1901, when Charles R. Walgreen bought the drugstore on the south side of Chicago at which he had been working as a pharmacist.
He bought a second store in 1909.
By 1915, there were five Walgreen drugstores.
By 1916, there were nine Walgreen stores, all on Chicago’s South Side, doing a business volume of $270,000 annually.
By 1919 Walgreen operated 20 stores. Same year the company opened its first photofinishing studio.
The 1920s were a booming decade for Walgreen stores
In 1920 Walgreen stores introduced the malted milkshake at their fountain counters.
By 1925, there were 65 stores with total annual sales of $1,2 million.
By 1927 the company opened its first East Coast store in New York’s theater district. That year, the company went public.
By the end of 1929, there were 397 Walgreen stores in 87 cities. Annual sales were $47 million with net earnings of $4 million.
The company suffered little from the 1929 stock market crash and the subsequent Great Depression.
In 1934 the company’s stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 1948 the company expanded its corporate headquarters in Chicago. That year, Walgreen began advertising on television.
The first self-service Walgreen opened on Chicago’s South Side in June 1952.
In 1974 the company opened its first Wag’s restaurant.
In 1983 Walgreen completed chain wide installation of its Intercom computerized pharmacy system.
By 1997 Walgreen was rolling out a second-generation Intercom Plus system.
In May 1997 Walgreen entered foreign territory-Japan.
In 1999 Walgreen launched a comprehensive online pharmacy.
In 2006, Walgreens acquired the Happy Harry’s chain.
In 2007, Walgreens acquired Option Care. Also in 2007, the company bought Take Care Health Systems, a leading operator of convenient care clinics.
The company opened its 7,000th store in October 2009, in Brooklyn, New York.
In October 2011 the company introduced the Nice! Brand.
C. Discuss how capitalism’s four basic rights are illustrated in the operations of this business.
Walgreens is not a monopolistic because they compete against CVC, Rite Aid, Walmart, etc. I believe Walgreens is oligopoly, in which a market is by a small number of firms that together control the majority of the market share. The retail pharmacy environment also has oligopoly characteristic of significant entry