CVS Pharmacy

**CVS Pharmacy** (stylized as **CVS**pharmacy, previously **CVS/pharmacy**) is an American retail corporation. Owned by CVS Health, it is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was also known as, and originally named, the **Consumer Value Store** and was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1963. The chain was owned by its original holding company Melville Corporation since its inception until its current parent company (CVS Health) was spun off into its own company in 1996. CVS Pharmacy is currently the largest pharmacy chain in the United States by number of locations (over 9,600 as of 2016) and total prescription revenue. Its parent company ranks as the 7th largest U.S. corporation by FY2017 revenues in the *Fortune* 500. The parent company of CVS Pharmacy's leading competitor (Walgreens) ranked 19th for the same time period.

CVS sells prescription drugs and a wide assortment of general merchandise, including over-the-counter drugs, beauty products and cosmetics, film and photo finishing services, seasonal merchandise, greeting cards, and convenience foods through their CVS Pharmacy and Longs Drugs retail stores and online through CVS.com. It also provides healthcare services through its more than 1,100 MinuteClinic medical clinics as well as their Diabetes Care Centers. Most of these clinics are located within or outside CVS stores.

## Overview[edit source]

A "shield" logo typical of early Consumer Value Stores, c. 1965
CVS Pharmacy used to be a subsidiary of Melville Corporation, where its full name was initially **Consumer Value Stores**. Melville later changed its name to CVS Corporation in 1996 after Melville sold off many of its nonpharmacy stores. The last of its nondrugstore operations were sold in 1997.

CEO Tom Ryan has said he considers "CVS" to stand for "Convenience, Value, and Service".

During the company's days as a regional chain in the Northeast, many CVS stores did not include pharmacies. Today, the company seldom builds new stores without pharmacies and outside of New England is gradually phasing out any such shops. Any new non-pharmacy store is usually built in a more urban setting where another CVS with a pharmacy exists within walking distance such as downtown Boston, Massachusetts or Providence, Rhode Island. These stores usually lack a pharmacy and a photo center but carry most of the general merchandise items that a normal CVS Pharmacy carries such as health and beauty items, sundries, and food items.[*citation needed*]

CVS Pharmacy announced plans to close 70 stores in 2017.

## Acquisitions and growth[edit source]

A CVS storefront typical of the mid-20th century, as shown in the company's 1971 annual report

### 1960s[edit source]

The name CVS was used for the first time in 1964. That year, they had 17 retail locations, and 40 stores five years later.

In 1967, CVS began operation of its first stores with pharmacy departments, opening locations in Warwick and Cumberland, Rhode Island. CVS was acquired by the now-defunct Melville Corporation in 1969, boosting its growth.

### 1970s[edit source]

By 1970, CVS operated 100 stores in New England and the Northeast.

In early 1972, CVS introduced America's first refillable plastic bottle[*citation needed*] - with its CVS private-label shampoo. Customers paid $.79 for a bottle of CVS private-label shampoo and when they returned the empty bottle and cap, could buy another bottle of the same shampoo for $.69 (a 10 cent saving). This practice created a cause-related repeat-purchase cycle, wherein the customer saved $.10 as they bought another bottle of CVS shampoo and avoided using (and CVS producing) a new plastic bottle. Each initial PVC bottle, flip-top cap and label cost CVS $11.5 cents. Thus, the process paid for itself and CVS empowered customers to make a greener purchase decision and reduce their carbon footprint.

In 1972, CVS acquired 84 Clinton Drug and Discount Stores, which introduced CVS to Indiana and the Midwest. By 1974, CVS had 232 stores and sales of $100 million. In 1977, CVS acquired the 36-store New Jersey-based Mack Drug chain.

### 1980s[edit source]

The chain had more than 400 stores by 1981. Sales reached $1 billion in 1985, partly due to the pharmacies being added to many of CVS's older stores.

In 1980, CVS became the 15th largest pharmacy chain in the U.S., with 408 stores and $414 million in sales. In 1988 CVS celebrated its 25th anniversary, finishing the year with nearly 750 stores and sales of about $1.6 billion.

### 1990s[edit source]

In 1990 CVS acquired the 490-store Peoples Drug chain from Imasco, which established the company in new mid-Atlantic markets including Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. In 1994 CVS started PharmaCare Management Services. The parent company decided to focus on CVS in 1995, selling off Marshalls and This End Up. The following year, they let go of Footaction/Footstar, Meldisco, Linens 'n' Things, and KB Toys. The company, then decided to change its name from Melville Corporation to CVS Corporation. In 1997, Bob's Stores were also sold, and CVS nearly tripled its 1,400 stores after purchasing the 2,500-store Revco chain. CVS bought 200 Arbor Drugs locations in 1998, opened approximately 180 new stores, closed about 160 stores, and relocated nearly 200 existing stores from strip malls to freestanding locations. In 1999 CVS acquired Soma.com, the first online pharmacy, and renamed it CVS.com. The same year, CVS launched their CVS ProCare Pharmacy for complex drug therapies.

In 1990 CVS bought the 23-store Rix Dunnington chain. In 1993, CVS withdrew from the southern California market. Formerly traded as MVL on the New York Stock Exchange, the company now trades as CVS.

### 2000–08: Acquisition of Eckerd and other acquisitions[edit source]

A CVS Pharmacy (Store #6240) in Southside Place, Texas (Greater Houston) that was formerly an Eckerd.
CVS bought Stadtlander Pharmacy of Pittsburgh from Bergen Brunswig/AmerisourceBergen in 2000. As of December 2009, CVS Caremark had over 7,000 locations.

In 2004 CVS purchased 1,268 Eckerd drug stores and Eckerd Health Services, a PBM/mail-order pharmacy business, from J. C. Penney. Most of the former Eckerd stores, which were converted to CVS stores by June, are located in Florida, Texas, and other southern states. Because JCPenney credit cards were accepted at Eckerd locations, CVS continued to accept them until July 2014.
A CVS Pharmacy on Canal Street in Downtown New Orleans
A typical 2000s CVS in Coventry, Connecticut.

On January 23, 2006, CVS announced that it had agreed to acquire the freestanding drug store operations of supermarket chain Albertsons. The deal included the acquisition of 700 drug stores trading under the Osco Drug and Sav-On Drugs banners, mostly in the midwestern and southwestern United States (with a concentration of stores in southern California and the Chicago area), and was formally completed on June 2, 2006. Transition of Sav-On and Osco stores to the CVS brand was completed by December 2006. CVS now dominates the southern California market. Also included were Albertsons Health'n'Home (now CVS Home Health) durable medical equipment stores. Approximately 28 CVS Home Health locations are present in Arizona, California, and the Kansas City area, representing CVS's first venture into the specialized DME market.

CVS had previously operated stores in southern California but completely withdrew from the market in 1993. CVS sold virtually all of the locations to Sav-On's then owner American Stores, who operated them under the name American Drug Stores. Many of the stores CVS gained in January 2006 had been the stores it owned prior to 1993. Before their re-acquisition, these stores were operated under the name Sav-On Express (the Express name was used to help customers identify these stores that did not carry all the lines of merchandise as compared to the larger, traditional Sav-On Drugs locations). CVS now operates over 6,200 stores in 43 states and the District of Columbia. In some locations, CVS has two stores less than two blocks apart.

On July 13, 2006, CVS announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic, the pioneer and largest provider of retail-based health clinics in the U.S. MinuteClinic operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of CVS Corporation. MinuteClinic health care centers are staffed by board-certified nurse practitioners and physician assistants who are trained to diagnose and treat common family illnesses such as throat, ear, eye, sinus, bladder, and bronchial infections, and provide prescriptions when clinically appropriate. MinuteClinic also offers common vaccinations, such as flu shots, tetanus, and Hepatitis A & B. The clinics are supported by physicians who collaborate with the staff. There are over 550 locations across the United States, most of which are within CVS Pharmacy locations.

On November 1, 2006, CVS announced that it was entering into a purchase agreement with Nashville-based Caremark Rx Inc., a pharmacy benefits manager. The new company is called *CVS Caremark Corporation* and the corporate headquarters remains in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The new pharmacy services business, including the combined pharmacy benefits management (PBM), specialty pharmacy, and disease management businesses, is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The new CVS Caremark Corporation is expected to achieve about $75 billion in yearly revenue for 2007. The merger was formally completed on March 22, 2007. Tom Ryan, CVS's Chairman and CEO, remains president and CEO of the combined company, while Caremark's president and CEO, Mac Crawford, is Chairman of the Board.

On November 7, 2007, Mac Crawford stepped down as Chairman of the Board for CVS Caremark. He was replaced by President and CEO of CVS Caremark, Tom Ryan.

On August 12, 2008, CVS Pharmacy announced that it would acquire Longs Drugs for $2.9 billion. Walgreens made a counteroffer but dropped it. The deal closed October 30, 2008. Longs Drugs stores outside Hawaii were rebranded to CVS Pharmacy in September 2009.

### 2012–present: Acquisitions and conversion to CVS Health[edit source]

Logo until 2016
A normal CVS location inside Target located in the Warwick Mall.

In 2012 CVS Caremark received 59 percent of Rhode Island's tax credits.

On July 14, 2014, it was announced that CVS Caremark would acquire the Miami-based Navarro Discount Pharmacies when the deal closes, the 33 stores will remain untouched and will stay under the Navarro name.

On September 3, 2014, CVS Caremark changed its name to CVS Health and announced that it would stop selling tobacco products.

On October 25, 2014, CVS Health disabled near field communication NFC payments, disallowing customers from using Apple Pay or Google Wallet payment methods. A reason was not immediately given. Analysts suggested that it was a way to favor the MCX system, which was still under development, and of which CVS was a founding member. They eventually re-enabled NFC on their registers after the MCX system failed to take off.

On May 21, 2015, it was announced that CVS Health would acquire Omnicare, Inc. the leading provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, for $98.00 per share in cash, for a total enterprise value of approximately $12.7 billion, which includes approximately $2.3 billion in debt. The transaction was expected to close near the end of 2015.

On June 15, 2015, CVS Health announced its agreement to acquire Target Corporation's pharmacy and retail clinic businesses. The deal expanded CVS to new markets in Seattle, Denver, Portland and Salt Lake City. The acquisition includes more than 1,660 pharmacies in 47 states. CVS will operate them through a store-within-a-store format. Target's nearly 80 clinic locations will be rebranded as MinuteClinic, and CVS plans to open up to 20 new clinics in their stores within three years. CVS started rebranding the pharmacies within the Target stores on February 3, 2016.

In December 2017 CVS Health announced a deal to acquire Aetna. On October 10, 2018, CVS Health received approval from the United States Department of Justice to acquire Aetna, for $69 billion.

CVS announced it would close 46 "underperforming stores" in 2019, and a further 22 in 2020, without disclosing their locations.

In May 2020 CVS Health announced a partnership with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to more than 60 CVS pharmacies that will conduct 50 or more COVID-19 tests per day. The New York partnership comes within days of CVS’ disclosure that it was going to dramatically ramp up COVID-19 testing by processing up to 1.5 million tests every month.

### Online[edit source]

The domain *CVS.com* attracted at least 26 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.

CVS no longer owns the soma.com domain name, which it acquired with the purchase of online drugstore pioneer Soma; that domain now resides with the lingerie brand of the same name owned by clothing retailer Chico's.

By 2004, all CVS stores were able to receive electronic prescriptions.

### CVS Pharmacy y más[edit source]

In 2015 CVS Pharmacy launched an alternative version of their CVS Pharmacy stores called **CVS Pharmacy y más** specifically aimed at attracting Hispanic shoppers. The first stores were launched in Florida and have since expanded to California, Puerto Rico and Texas.

## Environmental record[edit source]

In 2005 CVS participated in a program to reduce the pollution of Maine's waterways. CVS agreed to accept drugs for disposal so that people would not dispose of them in ways that reach rivers and other bodies of waters.

In 2013 CVS agreed to pay Connecticut $800,000 due to alleged mismanagement of hazardous waste. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection agency found that CVS had improperly identified, managed, and disposed of hazardous materials.