who bought eckerds in fl
The Eckerd deal arose because J.C. Penney, which bought Eckerd in 1997, wanted to sell after a weak performance. In addition to the sale to CVS, Penney is selling its remaining 1,539 Eckerd stores for $2.37 billion to a Montreal company, Jean Coutu Corp., which owns the Brooks Pharmacy chain. Coutu plans to leave the Eckerd nameplate on its stores, the company said. The CVS deal brings 622 stores in Florida and 437 in Texas. The rest of the stores are in Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas and Alabama.
This success, however, also led to customer confusion between the two Eckerd-run drugstore brands in Erie. Jack Eckerd, therefore, decided to venture into an entirely new market. In 1952 he left his fatherâs chain and purchased three struggling drugstores in Tampa and Clearwater, Florida, on the Gulf Coast. Using the self-service concept, he turned the three stores into financial successes. By 1955 Eckerd was running a five-store chain in Florida.