Walgreens (Walgreens Boots Alliance)
Sweden → USA
Healthcare, Pharma & Biotechnology
Summary
Walgreens was founded in 1901 in Chicago by Charles Rudolph Walgreen, born in 1873 in Illinois to Carl Magnus Olin Walgreen, a Swedish immigrant from Värmland who had arrived in the United States in 1854. After apprenticing in pharmacy and serving in the Spanish-American War, Walgreen bought the corner drugstore where he had worked in 1901. He pioneered the soda fountain in pharmacies — and is credited with inventing the milkshake in 1922 — and built one of the foundational American retail pharmacy chains. The 2014 merger with U.K.-based Alliance Boots produced Walgreens Boots Alliance.
European Contribution
Swedish immigrant work ethic and the family-pharmacy culture of late nineteenth-century rural Illinois.
American Impact
Built one of the foundational American retail pharmacy chains and helped invent the modern drugstore format.
Timeline Highlights
- 1854 Carl Walgreen emigrates from Sweden
- 1873 Charles Walgreen born in Illinois
- 1901 Opens first Walgreens drugstore in Chicago
- 1922 Walgreen credited with the milkshake's invention
- 2014 Merger with Alliance Boots