The Man Behind Walgreens
Introduction
About 125,000 people die from low adherence which means that someone is helpless or overwhelmed due to health care costs. Most people in the U.S. can't stick to their medication or sometimes it's just that they’re assigned the wrong medicine and more, but even though many people die Walgreens a drugstore founded by Charles Rudolph Walgreen who was the president and chairman of the business; which has been helping their customers all around the world by thousands (Schmeltzer and Banchero). Charles Rudolph Walgreen is a very important person who created one of the most successful drugstore chain companies in the world even though not many know about him. He is a very hardworking and smart person with a great heart. He helped his family's business after his father died he invested lots of his valuable time in it and had kept his leeward family's name running. He was the one who made Walgreens what we all know today.
Early Life
Charles Rudolph Walgreen was born on October 09, 1873, in Galesburg Knox County Illinois and his mother and father were Charles and Ellen ¨(NNDB). His father was both from Sweden and when they came to America their last name was changed to Walgreens while their original name was Olofsson. Charles Walgreen was still in his years of youth when his family relocated to Dixon in the year 1887 (Walgreen drug stores). As the years passed, Ellen and his father Charles' little boy had grown into a teenager and after high school, he had attended several jobs., and Hishis first was working at a drugstore he occupied as an errand boy. He would later be fired for his disobedience and his hesitation in shoveling snow, but he soon got another job as a bookkeeper. This next job determined the path his life would go. It would also change the direction of his footsteps completely and most assume that this was the reason why he became a pharmacist and founded the world-famous Walgreens. A shoe factory store accepted him as an employee and while he was on duty completing the tasks, he accidentally cut off a piece of his middle finger with a machine used for stitching (NNDB). He was originally interested in sports but this little incident made a big difference as he started to get less enthusiastic since now that would limit his playing ability. He started getting more and more interested in being a pharmacist.
Beginning of career
His father helped shape his future but yet Walgreen was not inspired by him and since he was nearly broke when he arrived at Chicago; he tossed the last of his money including pennies and quarters into a river so he would forcefully have to do something about his situation and work hard. What made it harder for him is that he swore he wouldn’t depend on his family and was determined to be successful by himself…and if that wasn’t enough there were like a thousand stores worth of competition that had lots of customers and were very successful(Our Past). He then was relying on hard work that he would have to do for a lifetime and if not he would fall defeated and poor. He had many failures in his past when it came to his jobs and when he walked into pharmacies or drug stores there were outdated medications and most medicines wouldn't satisfy their customers completely. So he then started by borrowing two thousand from his father to buy and invest in his drug store. When he first entered he was famous for all the new and more efficient medication he made himself and all of them were mostly very low priced unlike other stores this made his store cost-effective he also started trends and purchased a little soda fountain ad the more he added the merrier his store got(Our Past). The soda fountain was one of his best strategies to attract a customer and all the products in stock made him one of the top drug chain stores. But overall there were many things that he had to face like being poor when first arriving in Chicago, and as well as creating and expanding his business. Even though these were very tough challenges he still got through them.
Major Accomplishments
Charles Rudolph Walgreen started as just another blade of grass equally the same to the crowd with nothing special, but now he was a recognized and respected businessman. He accomplished many things during his lifetime but the biggest of all was just the making of Walgreens. The main reason he became famous was that he had founded the most advanced drug store of his time, and right where he used to work he asked blood the proprietary owner to sell him, and even though he was a trusted and very good business advisor blood rose the deal from 4000 to 6000. He knew it would take years but he accepted the deal anyway (Our Past). He made his store different from the others. He made it spacy and installed lights that would make customers feel a warm welcome. He greeted them personally which made his store even better equipped to make customers happy. This made his store more visited and it started to gain more popularity. Its reasonable merchandise prices kept the store alive and made more and more customers come. His business was dominating and he would later expand it to make it a better, more efficient one that would be worldwide recognized. Another accomplishment was that he had now opened over 20 stores which starting from scratch is a very hard task. He started to assemble his own superhero team which was the staff they were key to and made sure everything was right. The staff included William Scallion, A.L. Starshak, Willis Kuecks, Arthur C. Thorsen, James Tyson, Arthur Lundecker, John F. Grady, Roland G. Schmitt, Harry Goldstine, and later, the invaluable Robert Greenwell Knight’(Our Pastour past).Later he had 500 stores and then a 1000! Even though he started the race of the greatest drugstore ever, he did go through many obstacles like when he chopped off his finger which led him away from sports to being a businessman; all the way to the great depression one of the darker times, but either way he pushed through it all and he kept fighting not giving up which made what he is today. The man behind walgreens.
Impact on The World
America changed because of Charles Walgreen; he was on a whole different level when it came to being a pharmacist. If he hadn't had been born and raised with a proper education he would have never have done any of the things that help us in our daily lives today. He created his own medicine and treatments and all of them were very unique. They were also only in his store and no one but him had them, and as a result, he provided his customers with very high tech quality medicine instead of outdated versions like other pharmacies who weren't that good at satisfying their clients. This gave him an advantage in science as more and more people started to figure out the quality of his products. He also started several trends but amongst the most popular was his little soda fountain. This was a secret ingredient for almost all the drug stores in the world and in America, the person who started it all was no other than Charles Rudolph Walgreen; this made sodas start to get popular and if it wasn't for that they wouldn't be as widely recognized as they are today (Our Past). Walgreens was just a normal drug store but with Charles Walgreen’s contribution it became something else he changed the way the drug store chain system worked and for his own, it was the most popular in Chicago. He also expanded the number of the store because by 1920 there were twenty yes twenty stores that were open and running with no problem whatsoever (Our Past)!
Conclusion
Charles Rudolph Walgreen had many extraordinary personality traits. One of them would-be hard-working; he threw his last bit of money into a river, this forced him to try his hardest to achieve success or survive at all. He couldn't come empty-handed or he would have no choice but to wander in the streets, but as expected from a hard-working man he rose and gained even more money than he had before, and when it came to the money he was good at knowing when and in what he should invest. Take his little soda machine as an example and as proof of how he invested in something that would help him productively. These few qualities are very important. Being hardworking for example helps you not just wait till something happens but to try with all your desire and make an effort to complete something doing it yourself. It feels better than waiting as it might just never happen. Being a good investor and saver helps you manage your money in real life and can save you in many cases like when you lose a job or are at a time of suffering. Charles Rudolph Walgreen had so many qualities that made them successful in his journey through life. He had to overcome obstacles but came victorious. He rose from nothing to be at the top of the top which makes him such a remarkable person to look up to.
Works Cited
¨Our Past.¨ www.Walgreens.com/topic/about/history/our past. JSP, Date Accessed 13 Jan. 13, 2022.
¨Charles Walgreen.¨ NNDB, www.nndband.com/people/205/000159725/. Accessed
Schmeltzer, John, and Stephanie Banchero. Chicago Tribune, Charles R. Walgreen Jr.: 1906-2007, www.chicagotribune.com/nand investedews/ct-xpm-2007-02-12-0702120196-story.html. Accessed 11 Nov. 2021.
“Walgreen Drug Stores.'' Genealogy Trails, genealogy trails .com/ill/lee/lee reen. Accessed 10 Dec. 2021.