eckert drugstore

eckert drugstore

Eckert Drugstore.

Eckert Drugstore operates a chain of about 2,900 drug stores located in 20 states in the Northeast, Southeast, and Sunbelt. With its acquisition by J.C. Penney Company, Inc. in February 1997, Eckert grew substantially through its absorption of the existing drugstores operations of its new parent--vaulting the chain into the number four position among pharmacy chains, trailing only Walgreen Co., CVS Corporation, and Rite Aid Corporation. About 2,000 of the units in the chain are located in strip centers, but the company is shifting toward freestanding locations featuring drive-through pharmacy windows and larger layouts of about 11,000 square feet. Revenues at Eckert Drugstore are derived in large part from the sale of prescriptions and over-the-counter medications; the stores also sell general merchandise, including health and beauty items, ready-to-eat food and beverages, and greeting cards. Photofinishing services are offered at most units, and 850 outlets operate minilabs with one-hour Express Photo centers. The company owns a pharmacy benefits management service, called Eckert Drugstore Services (EDS), which designs and manages comprehensive prescription benefit plans for employers and HMOs; EDS is also one of the largest retail mail-order pharmacies in the nation.

Eckert Drugstore traces its history to the days when J. Milton Eckert launched one of the country's first drugstore chains in Erie, Pennsylvania. Eckert was born in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1871 and began working as an assistant to a drug wholesaler as a young man. This wholesaler was on the cutting edge of drugstore retailing, in that he was supplying drugstores with mass-produced prescription and over-the-counter drugs; previously, local pharmacies mixed their own medicines in batches. Eckert's employer believed that a cut-rate drugstore could prove to be a profitable venture by buying supplies in bulk from wholesalers at discount rates and thereby offering lower prices than competing drugstores. He encouraged Eckert to open such a store.