External environmental scan of Walgreens drugstores Walgreens was founded in the year 1901 in Chicago, Illinois and is currently the largest drug retailing chain in the US. As of the 31st of January 2012, the company had more than 8,300 stores across all 50 states of the US. The company provides access to consumer goods and services as well as pharmaceutical, health and wellness products and services. Current economic trends There are many challenges that face Walgreens in the industry it operates. One is because of the hard financial status that many people are facing thus they are faced with the tough decision on whether to put food on their table or buy medication. This can be seen in the decline in pharmacy sales over the years ADDIN EN.CITE 19991499("Drug Watch," 1999)1499149917Drug WatchThe American Journal of NursingThe American Journal of Nursing1899101999Lippincott Williams & Wilkins0002936Xhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3521900( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_1" o ", 1999 #1499" "Drug Watch," 1999). Walgreens has, however, managed to keep their growth at double digits while facing the slump in growth numbers. The company has managed to do this by striving to offer their drug products at the best price possible as a result of its economies of scale and pricing policy. Strengths The biggest strength of Walgreens is that the company has in-depth knowledge of their customers. This enables the company to prioritize their conveniences and therefore to implement a style of
Founded in 1901, Walgreens goal is to be consumers’ first choice for health and daily living across the nation, and a central part of people’s lives and the communities where they live and work. The company provides the most convenient, multi-channel access to goods and services, and pharmacy, health and wellness services while developing a new customer experience. Walgreens is the largest drug retailing chain in the United States as of 2012. A fiscal year for Walgreens end on August 31st, all of the measures are from either fiscal year 2012 or 2011.
Walgreen is a leading pharmaceutical company in the United Sates as well as in other parts of the globe. In the United Sates, the company leads other players such as CVS as it operates over 8000 retail stores across the 50 sates making the company the largest drug retailing chain in U.S. The company was founded 155 years ago in 1901 in Chicago, Illinois where its current headquarters lies. As such, the presentation seeks to develop a mini-strategy for the company.
the benefits of a multichannel strategy” (p. 13). Walgreen’s image is about creating value and making shopping either for consumer goods or prescription drugs more convenient.
Walgreens has attempted to build satisfaction, value, and loyalty for their customers by remembering that loyal customers are at the heart of their business, and thus rely on a customer-on-top business model. To do this, Walgreens has learned the talent of listening and responding to their customers in the following ways: (1) to respond to the busy lives of their customers, Walgreens allowed them to fill prescriptions at different stores and offered them the drive-thru pharmacy; (2) customers who spoke other languages complained about the labels, and Walgreens responded by printing labels in more than 10 different languages; and (3) when customers with eyesight problems could not read the labels, Walgreens offered printed labels with larger font sizes so that customers could more easily read the bigger text (Berenbaum, n.d., para. 19).
From 2002 to 2005, Walgreens reported a compounded annual growth rate of 10.1%, growing to $42.2 billion in total revenues. This strong revenue growth was primary driven by organic expansion through new store openings. Since 2002, Walgreens has added 1070 net new stores (22% increase) while CVS has added 1,384 net new stores (25% increase), of which 86%, or 1200 of CVS' store additions, were due to the 2004 acquisition of Eckerd. As a result, although CVS reported an impressive 21% increase in sales from 2004 to 2005 compared to Walgreens 12.5% (a decline from 15.3% in 2003 to 2004), it was primarily due to CVS experiencing the full effect of the mid-2004 acquisition of the 1200 Eckerd stores. Table 3 shows the year-over-year comparison of Walgreens total revenues to CVS'.
Walgreens was founded in 1901 measuring 50 feet by 20 feet by Charles R. Walgreen, Sr.. Mr. Walgreen was born near Galesburg, Illinois and his family later relocated to Dixon, Illinois at town about 60 miles north of his birthplace. Mr. Walgreens’ father was a farmer who turned into a businessperson and saw a great potential of the Rock River Valley (Walgreen, n.d., p.1). At age 16, Charles Walgreen had his first experience working in a drug store. He didn’t always have pleasurable experiences but it was a job with pay. He had an accident at a shoe factory that cut off his left middle finger from the top joint. This injury also stops him from playing any sports at school. After a year and a half with the
At present Walgreens appears to be operating in a Horizontal Integration strategy demonstrated through its merger with Boots Alliance and a reported inquiry to purchase Rite-Aid. (Nichols, 2015) Market Penetration is another strategy which Walgreens is presently operating within. Their change in strategy to focus on the customer and improve customer service and relationships is one strategy that is being used to penetrate a market with vast competition that needs a differentiator to remain on top.
Walgreens’ principal activity is to operate a chain of retail drugstores that sells prescription and nonprescription drugs. The company also carries additional product lines like general merchandise including cosmetics, food, beverages and photofinishing. Walgreens is one of the fastest growing retailers in the United States and led the chain drugstore industry in retail sales and profits last year.
Knowing the importance of a strategic vision, every company undertakes a complete analysis periodically. In order to create a strategic plan the parties involved must know every aspect of the industry and the company at hand. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the retail drugstore industry and then focus on Walgreens, the industry leader in terms of sales. As part of the in-depth analysis of Walgreens, its major competitors will also be described and analyzed. The retail drugstore industry consists of all those stores that contain a pharmacy and sell prescription drugs. It also includes businesses that sell prescription drugs online and through the mail. Most retail drugstores also offer other
Walgreens is the more established and older of the two companies. It was founded in 1901 and until recently it added stores from mostly internal organic growth. CVS is the newer company and started in 1963. The majority of growth at CVS has come from acquisitions of other companies like Revco, Arbor Drug, Eckerd and more recently Sav-On and Osco
Strengths. As of 2008, Walgreen operated 6,934 stores in the U.S. and U.S. held territories, making it the largest retail chain pharmacy in North America (DataMonitor, 2010, p. 22). Walgreen’s recent acquisition of Duane-Reade, a prominent
Although not explicitly stated in any of the research I found, I believe Walgreens views its IT professionals as essential to driving the strategy and mission of the company. Since the company relies heavily on its e-commerce functions such as online sales and online prescriptions
Founded in 1901 in Illinois by Charles R. Walgreen, Sr., Walgreens was a subsidiary of Walgreens Boots Alliance. In the most recent years, Walgreen’s corporate strategy has been focused on mergers and acquisitions, the first of which occurred in 2014 when Walgreens purchased the remaining stake in Boots costing the company approximately $15.3 billion. (Walgreens, n.d.) With this acquisition Walgreens became the largest pharmacy/health/beauty combination retailer in the world, operating in all 50 states and 12 countries internationally. (Schauber, 2014)
We would like to thank you so much for all the hard work that you all have been doing. As Walgreens still continue being one of the top largest retail pharmacy in the United States. Our goal and vision has always been; to be America's most loved pharmacy-led health, wellbeing and beauty retailer and to champion everyone’s right to be happy and healthy and that also include our employees. With that being said we really appreciate your loyalty and the excellent work that you continue to do despite our current predicament.
but also over-the-counter-drugs, health care products, grocery selections, gifts, holiday and seasonal items, and one-hour photo developing (Biesada, 2006b). Walgreens is also known for its superior locations. Following an organic growth strategy has allowed the company to carefully select the locations where it opens new stores