Talk:Walgreens/Archive 1

Logo
Please note: The logo discussion needs to be on the page of the logo's discussion! We have also decided on the Scalable Vector Graphics format for the logo(SVG). I, AntiVanMan remove the previous discussion to shorten the page. AntiVanMan (talk) 01:18, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Writing Style
This is ridiculous. It reads like a commercial. I propose all information regarding corporate philosophy be stripped from the article.


 * Well, can you propose why corporate philosophy be stripped from the article? Is it that you don't like Walgreens or because you have a legitimate reason? I can't think of any. Corporate philosophy is important in every company. It is what shapes the company. It is a defining characteristic of many companies. While not every little tidbit is needed, corporate philosophy should be in EVERY article on a company. --THollan 05:41, 30 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I like Walgreens, but if I wanted an ad I'd go to their official website. Where'd anyone get these anecdotes? Surely at least a few have citations _somewhere_?


 * OK, so...uh, is anyone going to do anything about this? It's obviously a PR puff piece, but nobody's doing anything about it. As for the question of apostrophe, the name of the store and the company is Walgreens (no apostrophe). Oh, and sign your comments. PeteJayhawk 06:00, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm a former Rite Aid employee (in other words I have no love for Rite Aid) and yet even I think that this Walgreens article needs to be rewritten or cited, as stated above. (new user dafalcon) 22 August 2006

I would also like to add that this entire article is PR fluff. Can someone with a little more skill in editing try and stamp it with a POV conflict? All the Citations are either from Walgreens websites or pro-Walgreens articles. Look, I have no problem with Walgreens either, but this page deserves a little balance. - anonymous 03:10, 26 Feb. 2008

Article Name
The title of this article needs to be changed from "Walgreens" to "Walgreen's". This is because the surname of the company's founder was "Walgreen" and "Walgreen's" is possessive. Possessives have apostrophes except for pronouns such as "its," "hers," "his," "theirs," and "ours" (etc., in case there are any etc.).


 * The company name is not "Walgreen's". It's "Walgreens."-Caldorwards4 23:01, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Walgreens was founded by Mr. Walgreen, the company was named Walgreens, it never had an apostrophe, in its HISTORY. I would know, since I have worked for the company for 27 years 71.43.71.75 (talk) 00:59, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

User "MaxxFordham" writes:

Yeah, I'd be tempted to use an apostrophe, too, since that does actually make good sense. Ya have a Walgreen, so the store he or she owns oughtta be "Walgreen's," as it belongs to (well, at least did belong to...) and/or was started by them. Right? Yeah, it makes sense, all right, but for whatever unknown reason (which I would love to find out), they've chosen to leave that sensible piece of punctuation OUT.

"But WHY?" I ask, because to me it does look a little retarded that way, as if something was just left...well, undone... unfinished. Anyone have any real idea?

Mike

The company name is not Walgreens or Walgreen's...infact it is Walgreen Co. as listed on the NYSE. On just about any financial website, or article writen about the company in any trade magazines, the company is refered to as Walgreens. That just seems to be the way it is and has been for over 100 years. 76.228.197.51 (talk)Rob —Preceding comment was added at 18:17, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Citation
Irrespective of that, it needs a hell of a lot of citations and references, and yes, it does look like ad copy. Stifle (talk) 22:54, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree, this reads like a Walgreens ad and virtually none of the content is cited.
 * I think most of the information has been in Walgreen World and the other newsletters (the names of which escape me at the moment). If anyone had the back issues, they could cite just about everything.  Some of the other info might be from Jeff Rein's monthly memos.  --Sweden15 05:52, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism
Is the walgreens entry frequently vandalized? I just removed some anti-walgreen's garbage from the end of the article - as in "walgreens is the devil" type garbage.
 * Well just saying walgreens is the devil might be good :p No, the article is not vandalized very often at all.

While anti-Walgreens "garbage" may have been removed, I have to question whether there shouldn't be some information related to the voracious expansion of this chain, much of which has permanently altered the downtowns of small towns and cities across the nation. This may be perceived as "anti-Walgreen" but isn't it pertinent to a listing about the company? Or is everything supposed to be sweetness and light? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Theamericanroadside (talk • contribs) 23:26, 20 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I am the same commenter who earlier mentioned removing anti-walgreen's garbage, so allow me to clarify what I meant by that. The comments I removed were specifically insults that were exactly along the lines of "walgreens is the devil".  I have no personal agenda for defending walgreens myself, and removed those pieces only because they were opinionated and added nothing to the article.  Much like other large corporations there are plenty of bad things that can be said, but no points are made (towards furthering discussion) when people simply state their opinions in the middle of wikipedia entries.  24.58.37.208 (talk) 02:45, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Theamericanroadside, find some sources and write it up, that would be interesting. -Colfer2 (talk) 05:14, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Competition
Wal-Mart should NOT be listed as a Walgreens competitor! Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS are all actual drugstore chains. Wal-Mart, however, has pharmacies, but is a discount store chain.

Hmm...Wrong again. Walmart is one of the top 3 competitors for WAG. Why not check Hoovers? Dirtydan667 19:08, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I concur with Dirtydan. Wal-Mart is not a full competitor in some fields (like automotive parts, software, or firearms) but when it comes to apparel, groceries, and pharmacies, they are definitely a full competitor against more specialized stores in all three fields in that they carry a sufficiently broad inventory to serve as a satisfactory substitute for a more specialized store.  For example, I wouldn't shop for software at Wal-Mart (their selection is terrible), but I definitely would (and do) shop there for the kind of stuff traditionally sold at pharmacies. --Coolcaesar 21:57, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the macroeconomic look, and you are precisely correct. Furthermore, Wal-Mart's $4 generic announcement had much more effect on WAG's stock price and company morale than probably the past 10 acquisitions by CVS combined (including CareMark; do a Topix search to see PR statements from WAG-the only one that got an official response from WAG was the $4 announcement. Not even CVS+Eckerd could get a rise out of WAG).  I apologize for being rude; I was just afraid of a potential 3R problem. Dirtydan667 00:37, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Addison Explosion
Can someone sneak in some info/trivia about the Walgreens that exploded in Addison, Illinois? Antman -- chat 22:48, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
 * How is it rekevant in the article?  ♪ ĴøЙäţĥÂṇ   sing it!  ♫ , 29 July 2024 (UTC)
 * It is not relevant, it would have to under an article titled "Walgreens Store Disasters"

Contradiction
The first paragraph says a new store opens every 19 hrs. The "trivia" section says a new one opens every 17 hrs. While I hate that factoid that everyone uses because it's retarded, if we are gonna use it, it should be consistent. 24.171.12.250 12:51, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Question
Does anyone know if Walgreens is the only provider of 24-hour pharmacy services (prescriptions)? As far as I know, in Northern California and Nevada, this is the case. This would be an interesting thing to look into.


 * At least in Chicago, many of the CVS pharmacies are open 24 hours. I don't know about the rest of the country. Tubezone 23:25, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Comparison to CVS, "largest in the US"
Just a point of correction, Walgreen's does not operate a PBM. It is not something that the company has gotten into so that it can remain in good standing with insurance companies. Today anonymous Special:Contributions/64.53.205.142 edited both Walgreens and CVS/pharmacy to claim that Walgreens is larger than CVS, "based on sales, profit, and their 6,237 locations", without any citation. I found refs otherwise, such as Walgreen Co. (WAG) Competitors in Yahoo! Finance. I edited both articles to say "one of the two largest" and provided three references in each article, under a single footnote explaining "Walgreens has approximately the same number of stores as CVS/pharmacy, but a considerably smaller market capitalization and revenue. As of Dec. 29, 2007, CVS Caremark had 6,245 drugstores, in addition to other retail facilities. Walgreens had 6,237 as of Feb. 29, 2008." That note is in the Walgreens article, and the footnote I added to CVS is similar. Please comment here if you disagree, or have other info or advice. Thanks! Colfer2 (talk) 01:31, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Corporate vs. Retail: Store count is easy, but the financials (market cap and revenue) depend on how you consider CVS/pharmacy vs. its parent CVS Caremark. Both CVS and WAG operate large PBMs, etc., which could be heavy weights on their numbers. I think "one of the two largest" is fair, especially since the number of retail stores is very close. Or you could start counting other facilities they operate. :( Colfer2 (talk) 02:16, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * When referring to a company's ranking amongst its competitors, generally sales or profits are used as the determining factor. Walgreens corporation has had both higher sales and profits than CVS for a considerable time, if not for their entire life.  Wikipedia itself shows a nearly 4 billion dollar lead in sales dollars by Walgreens, which I believe to be accurate.  I have yet to read anything in mainstream media where financial experts rank the companies by their store count.  However, Walgreen's website says that they have nearly 6,300 stores and CVS's website says that they have over 6,200 stores.  So I'm not even clear that CVS has a lead in store count anymore either.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Disgovernment (talk • contribs) 07:28, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Maybe so, but the easiest thing to do would be to find a reference in Forbes or BusinessWeek or WSJ or whatever saying "Walgreens is the largest...". rather than argue numbers here. I think the business of Walgreens, which includes wholesale pharm, is more like the CVS parent CVS Caremark???? -Colfer2 (talk) 12:14, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, after reviewing Walgreens own website it says that as of March 31, 2007, it has 6,271 stores. CVS's own website says that as of that same date, they have 6,208 stores.  And since Walgreens builds stores faster than anyone else in the drugstore industry, and has done so for a long time, I suspect that gap has only increased.  So that confirms that Walgreens is #1 in sales, #1 in profit, and #1 in store count, making it #1 in the drugstore industry all around.Disgovernment (talk) 06:10, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry, that's March 31, 2008, that I meant.Disgovernment (talk) 06:13, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Walgreens in Puerto Rico make $6,637 millions a year,ain't that super high for the quantity of stores?
"El pasado año Walgreens vendió en Estados Unidos $47,409 millones. Unos $6,637 millones los vendieron sus tiendas en Puerto Rico."

http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/portada/noticias/todos_debemos_acatarla/388742

--BoricuaPR (talk) 01:03, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think that Walgreens is inherently biased, but I think the wording could be toned down ever so slightly, and yes more citations are biased. I also noticed some valuable financial data links were removed for some inconceivable reason.192.114.4.36 (talk) 08:28, 27 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Please see User talk:192.114.4.36. Thanks. -Colfer2 (talk) 14:42, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

MediMart acquisition
I added to this article that in 1986, Walgreens acquired the MediMart chain in New England. My edits were reverted and now I have provided a link to an article about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.136.96.119 (talk) 20:20, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

This article is a blatant advertisement
I can believe that this article has been on here for such a period of time without being challenged as advertising spam. Anyone could find every bit of this page on the company's corporate website and SEC filings. Walgreens is a great company but does not need wiki's help in marketing its brand. --Dsternpv (talk) 03:47, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I've removed the speedy deletion request and the advert tag, as this is definitely not blatant advertising; I suggest that the editor above bring any particular concerns with the article here, pointing out specific issues that need to be dealt with. Tony Fox (arf!) 03:56, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * the reasons are clearly stated above. Do not remove tags without discussion.--Dsternpv (talk) 03:59, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Specifics would be appreciated. It doesn't look that bad to my view, though could probably use some more outside citations. Tony Fox (arf!) 05:29, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Again, I would like to point out that this page reeks of company PR, look at the citiation. Over half of them are taken from the site, there is no criticism on the entire thing and most of it reads like a handout. While I don't really care one way or another about Walgreens i do think this article isn't "blatant" but it definitely is an advert. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.60.167.31 (talk • contribs) 07:34, 9 March 2009


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dsternpv shows the editor above is a sock-puppet. Removing advert tag accordingly. Hal (talk) 19:18, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Gift shop chain???
I reverted an edit that said Walgrees was a gift shop chain. I've never heard of a "gift shop chain." I don't think the term is widely used in the United States.

Walgreens is a combination pharmacy, 5-and-dime, and in some stores, small-scale grocery store. Many of them offer photo-finishing services as well.

If the term "gift shop chain" is widely used to describe the store, then please re-add it, with a reference. davidwr/ (talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail)  01:06, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Tylenol Scare
Would it be worth noting that one of the victims of the 1982 Tylenol scare purchased their products at a Chicago Walgreens? Voice99 (talk) 14:52, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Not in this article. It would be notable if Walgreens was specifically targeted.  If all of the affected stores are mentioned, then it would be appropriate to add this information to 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders.  davidwr/  (talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail)  18:49, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

7000 stores now
Though not edited into the article yet, the 7000th Walgreens opened October 1st in Brooklyn. Googling '7000th walgreens' turns up quite a few sources... Ranma9617 (talk) 06:07, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Walgreens' INane Policies
There are many people who are critizing Walgreens for many of the various policies they have

Chief among them - Having Photo Lab People working cosmetics ... That is more like protecting $100K worth of Cosmetics than developing one roll of film and then promoting bad people. Look at Ripoffreport.com and type in Walgreens.

And then when you decide to critize Walgreens, you get attacked by the Walgreen's Lovers and Supporters who use Brown and Williamson Tactics like name calling and publishing the address and phone numbers of critics on the YAHOO MESSAGE BOARD —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.127.85.115 (talk) 23:10, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

History Section
Something needs to be done with the history section. It is in no way neutral. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.246.65.238 (talk) 01:33, 2 January 2010 (UTC)


 * and if you look at this page, you'll see that this has been a criticism since 2006 but those who try to do something are called sock puppets and dismissed.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.207.12.64 (talk) 04:06, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

2nd largest chain?
Both the Walgreens entry and the entry re CVS claim that they are the second largest drugstore chain in the U.S. They can't both be true, and I think (though have not confirmed) that Walgreens is, in fact, the largest. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.77.47.130 (talk) 19:33, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Wisconsin, Before Walgreen's
My grandmother and mother and father seem to know of stores that walgreen's took over, known as Renabon or Renebon. However, google search results in nothing as such. Anyone enlighten me? 71.87.114.122 (talk) 20:48, 20 August 2010 (UTC)