[TheStranger]

For most of my life, I've known Walgreens to be an entirely freestanding drugstore (as compared to, say, Sav-on which often was paired with an American Stores supermarket of some sort, though not always).

But yesterday, in addition to learning of the existing Granada Hills store (former Ralphs) that is paired with a Staples, I also found this gem in the library, on page 100-101 of "Supermarkets: 50 Years of Progress" by the Food Marketing Institute:


larger: http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores/mis ... ckswag.jpg

Anyone know more about this concept? I think this photo dates back to the 1970s.

[runchadrun]

The Granada Hills Walgreens isn't paired with Staples, and I doubt it was paired with the Ralphs either. It's a separate store (the Walgreens building was added on to the Ralphs/Staples building), they just share some signage.

[Groceteria]

Anyone know more about this concept? I think this photo dates back to the 1970s.

As it happens, I picked up a book on the history of Walgreens when I was in Chcago a few weeks ago. The Schnucks-Walgreens partnership began in 1976, with the first store in Cape Girardeau MO, a suburb of St. Louis. There were a grand total of 27 of these combo stores, but Walgreens pulled out in 1981. It's the only such partnership the book mentions.

[jamcool]

In Phoenix, there was a Fry's and Walgreens that shared the same building (at the old Maryvale Shopping Center). However they were separated by a walkway that went through the center of the building.

[terryinokc]

There was a Schnucks Walgreens in Fort Smith, Arkansas from around 1977 till the early 1980's. Didn't last very long. That was about the time Skaggs Albertsons (probably by then just Skaggs or maybe Skaggs Alpha Beta) started moving into Arkansas.

[dooneyt63]

Earlier, perhaps the late 1960's, Walgreens had the Globe discount stores. I think they had grocery departments as well as pharmacies.

[Jeff]

In Phoenix, there was a Fry's and Walgreens that shared the same building (at the old Maryvale Shopping Center). However they were separated by a walkway that went through the center of the building.

Here in LA, there was the previously mentioned Ralph's / Sav-on that was the same way, where the Ralphs shut down many years ago and remained empty and the Sav-on continued till a few months ago when it moved to a new stand alone store in the parking lot.

[kroger/iga]

There were four Schnucks / Walgreens stores. Two in Evansville, Indiana, one in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and one in Fort Smith, Arkansas. When this partnership was dissolved,
in March, 1981, Schnucks took over the stores. The Fort Smith store was sold to Safeway.
The three others remain Schnucks stores. The Cape Girardeau store was the first store and is 100 miles south of St. Louis. Many strip centers in St. Louis, developed by Schnucks, were
anchored by separate Schnucks and Walgreens stores.

[rich]

Jewel & Walgreen had joint a joint development agreement in Chicago before they Jewel started building Jewel-Oscos. The stores were separate, though. These kinds of agreements were common. Topps and National Tea jointly developed locations in the Midwest.

[krogerclerk]

Skaggs Drugs and Albertson's formed a similar partnership in the early 70's operating Skaggs Albertson combo stores. The partnership was disolved with some stores going to Albertson's and other operating as Skaggs SuperCenters until the acquisition of American Stores by Skaggs, at which time the Skaggs Supercenters became Skaggs Alpha Beta( AZ, AR, CA,FL, KS, MO, NV, NM, OK, TX, UT ). Later the name was changed to Jewel Osco , after ASC acquired Lucky,for locations outside of California and about a year later the Jewel Osco stores, excluding Jewels base in Chicagoland are surrounding areas were sold to Albertson's. Then it all came full circle with Albertson's acquiring American Stores.

The Walgreen's partnership occured in the years after Schnuck's bought Bettendorf-Rapp from Allied, which put Schnuck's as a major competitor to A&P, Kroger and National in St. Louis. It was a pairing similar to Jewel and Osco in Walgreen's hometown of Chicago, except Schnuck's and Walgreen's were separate companies like the Skaggs-Albertson's partnership.

Many of the early pharmacies in discount stores and grocery stores were operated by a third party, usually a local independent pharmacy, rather than a partnership with another chain or the store itself. Since they operated under the trade name of the store in which they were located, the partnership was more or less invisible to the public. Also grocery stores were common co-anchors with drugstores in many strip centers, often adjacent to one another. Many chains had agreements to co-anchor strips, such as Eckerd and Publix in Florida. Other chains got into drugstore ownership, Jewel with Osco, Kroger with SupeRx, and Safeway with SuperS, which resulted in the knowledge to develop combo stores of their own.