Walgreens to open four new stores in Pinellas County
By TOM GERMOND
Article published on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006  |
 |
![[Image]](/content_images/011206_pco-03.jpg) |
| Photo by TOM GERMOND |
| A 14,500-square-foot Walgreens is under construction at 102nd Avenue and 66th Street in Pinellas Park. The store is expected to open in March. |
|
PINELLAS COUNTY – The Walgreen Co. plans to open four stores in the county in the first six months of 2006.
The company, one of the leading drugstore chains in the country, has 662 stores in Florida, its largest market, said Carol Hively, corporate spokeswoman.
“We are continuing to expand,” said Hively. “We are opening stores at a rate of one every 20 hours.”
The four stores in Pinellas County slated for opening in the first half of this year include two in St. Petersburg, one in Pinellas Park and one in Dunedin, Hively said.
Florida is the company’s top market because of tourism and the large elderly population in the state, Hively said.
The company is opening 450 stores across the country this fiscal year. In October the company opened its 5,000th store, in Richmond, Va. The company expects to have more than 7,000 stores by 2010, according to a company news release.
Charles Walgreen Sr. started the Walgreen chain. In 1901 he bought a Chicago drugstore where he worked as a pharmacist. The company is based in Deerfield, Ill.
In 2005 the company had more than 179,000 employees. The average store is about 14,500 square feet, has 25 to 30 employees and annual sales of $7.9 million.
|
Article published on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved. |
