Eckerd

**Eckerd Corporation** is an American drug store chain that was headquartered in Largo, Florida, now in Warwick, Rhode Island.

## History

Eckerd was founded in September 1898 (making it the oldest of the "big four" drugstore chains), by 27-year-old J. Milton Eckerd and Z. Tatom in Erie, Pennsylvania. In the company's early years, it operated at 1105 State Street in downtown Erie as the Erie Cut-Rate Medicine Store. In 1912, Eckerd and Tatom sold their original store to Eckerd's sons and moved to Wilmington, Delaware, establishing a new store. From Delaware, the chain expanded to North Carolina and later Florida. Jack Eckerd, son of the founder, was responsible for the expansion of the company when he acquired three stores in Florida in 1952.

In 1960, four African-American students from Allen University staged a sit-in at the Columbia, South Carolina store's whites only lunch counter. In *Bouie v. City of Columbia*, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed their trespassing convictions.

In 1961, Eckerd changed from a proprietorship to a publicly owned company. At the height of Eckerd's success, it had over 2,800 stores in more than 20 states, including 1,600 stores with Eckerd Express Photo one-hour photo labs in 19 states, and revenue of $13.1 billion in fiscal year 2000. Between 1968 and 1985, Eckerd owned Eckerd's Apparel and J. Byrons department stores, as well as *VideoConcepts*, a chain of mall-based electronics shops. J. Byrons and VideoConcepts were sold off in 1985, the latter to Tandy Corporation.

### JCPenney and Jean Coutu Group

JCPenney and Eckerd agreed to merge in 1996 and the merger took place in 1997. Penney paid $3.3-billion and assumed $760 million in debt to acquire Eckerd and combine it with its 800-store Thrift Drug chain. Under the agreement, all of JCPenney's Thrift Drug unit of drug stores (comprising Thrift Drug, Kerr Drugs, Fay's Drugs, and some Rite Aid stores) were rebranded to the Eckerd name. JCPenney Catalog Centers were added to Eckerd stores. JCPenney also bought more than 500 more stores from four other chains in New York state, Virginia and the Carolinas, such as the 1998 acquisition of the 141-store Genovese chain in the New York metropolitan area.

During this period Eckerd became the second largest drug store chain in the U.S., with over 2,800 stores stretching from New York and Connecticut to Florida and west to Arizona. One carryover from the Thrift Drug days after the merger took over was the presence of JCPenney Catalog Centers inside certain locations, which enabled Eckerd customers to order merchandise from store catalogs and pick it up at an Eckerd location. As technology, such as ordering over the Internet, began to gain traction, Eckerd fell behind by failing to update its IT networks. Over the next seven years JCPenney came to see Eckerd as a distraction which would cost too much to continue fixing (as they were focused on their department stores), and in March 2004 it formally declared that it would carry Eckerd on its books as a discontinued asset. JCPenney took a $1.3-billion charge against earnings in connection with selling the drugstore chain, which had accounted for 45 percent of its annual revenues.

In July 2004, JCPenney sold the Eckerd stores to CVS Corp and Canada's Jean Coutu Group for $4.5 billion. CVS acquired 1,260 Eckerd stores and support facilities in Texas, Florida and other southern states, and their pharmacy benefits management and mail order businesses for $2.15 billion. Jean Coutu Group acquired about 1,540 stores and support facilities in the north east and mid-Atlantic for $2.375 billion.

### CVS conversions

CVS bought more than 1,200 Eckerd stores and converted most of them to CVS Pharmacies in late 2004 and 2005, eliminating the Eckerd name from markets such as Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi, which had once been among the chain's strongholds. Even a few brand-new locations in Texas and Arizona were transformed into CVS almost as quickly as they were built as Eckerd stores. The CVS purchase also included the Eckerd stores located in Colorado; however, CVS opted to close these stores. Customers are still able to pay for their purchases at CVS with their JCPenney credit card. Eckerd later resumed operations in said states under Sears.

### Brooks Eckerd Pharmacy

Brooks Eckerd Pharmacy was created when Jean Coutu purchased Eckerd from JCPenney and merged it with Brooks. Eckerd's corporate headquarters was transferred from Florida to Rhode Island, the base of Brooks Pharmacy. The Eckerd and Brooks chains shared many of the same corporate functions. Jean Coutu operated the stores it purchased under the slightly modified "Eckerd Pharmacy" name and logo, featuring a red Eckerd capsule in an attempt to unify the Eckerd and Brooks chains.

### Market exits, Sears Enters

On January 4, 2008, Eckerd announced that it would terminate operation of its 28 Rite Aid stores in the Las Vegas, Nevada, area and had signed an agreement to sell patient prescription files from that metro market to Walgreens. The company said Las Vegas was a non-core market that had not been contributing to overall results, and it had not opened a new store there since 1999. One Nevada store would remain open in Gardnerville, near the California border, where Eckerd at the time had more than 600 stores. In Mid-2008, Sears Holdings acquired Eckerd for $15.2 billion.

On February 5, 2009, Eckerd announced that it would terminate operations of seven Rite Aid stores in San Francisco, along with five stores in eastern Idaho through a sale to Walgreens.

Eckerd formerly had a presence in the Columbus, Ohio market, but has since sold off its stores there to CVS.

## Regional chains

* Brooks Pharmacy - New England (except Connecticut), Eastern Upstate New York
* Fay's Drug - Western and Central New York
* Genovese Drug Stores - New York City, Long Island, Connecticut, and Northern New Jersey

## See also

* Eckerd/Locations

**[boxcar] (Website, Technology & Software Development Division)**
ChargePoint | Ring
**Amazon (e-commerce division)**

 **[cendant]  (Real Estate & Hospitality Division)**

**LUXURY Hotels**
**PREMIUM Hotels**
**MIDSCALE Hotels**
**ECONOMY Hotels**

**Cendant DESTINATIONS**

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**[clothespins]  (Sears Retail Network; Physical Retail & Private Label Division)**
*Bookstores:* Borders
*Bridalwear/formalwear Stores:* David's Bridal | Gingiss Formalwear
*Clothing Stores:* Lands' End | Lucky Brand Jeans
*Convenience Stores (Couche-Tard):* Circle K
*Department Stores:* Lord & Taylor | Kmart | Sears
*Home Decor/Furniture Stores:* At Home | Ashley HomeStore | Restoration Hardware
*Office Supply Stores:* OfficeMax | Office Depot
*Pet Supply Stores:* PetSmart
*Pool Supply Stores:* Leslie's
*Supermarkets:* Whole Foods Market
*Toy Stores:* Child World | KB Toys

 **[fulfillment]  (Manufacturing & Distribution Division)**
*Bicycle Manufacturing:* Diamondback Bicycles | Mavic | Redline Bicycles
*Distribution Centers:*

**[kaiser] (healthcare & fitness division)**
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*Kaiser Permanente:* Aspen Dental
*Sears Fitness Network:* Planet Fitness
*Equinox:*

**[omnimedia] (media division)**
*General Amusement (Conventions):* SearsFest | Twitchcon

**[savory] (Sears Restaurant Network; Restaurant Division)**

**[truist] (Financial Division)**

**[western] (Sears Auto Network; Automotive Division)**
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*Auto Parts Stores:* Western Auto | CARQUEST & WORLDPAC
*Car Dealerships & Sales:* AutoNation | CARVANA | DriveTime
*Car Repair Centers:* Big O Tires | Midas | National Tire & Battery

**General Cinemas (Cinema Division)**
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General Cinemas Corporation | Cinemark

**[prodigy] (telecommunications division)**

**Other Assets:**