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This is an especially special holiday season for participants in and advocates of chain drug retailing in America. Reason? The season celebrates and pauses to recall the 90th anniversary of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.
Much has been written over the years, in this publication and others, lauding the indispensable impact NACDS has exerted — and continues to exert — on mass retailing in this country and elsewhere on the planet. Indeed, it is not too much of a stretch to theorize what might have happened, or not happened, to our industry had the association never existed. No formal chain drug industry? No organized mass retailing community in America? It’s very possible.
Which brings us once again to the afternoon and evening of December 13. On that date, industry legends past and present will gather (or, if you’re a slow reader, have already gathered) in New York City to remember and relive the anniversary — and recall, again, the organizations and individuals who built it.
The emphasis at this event will be where it should be: on the people. Reason? People have formed, built and sustained this industry to an extent not often found in the American business community. So it will be (or has already been) that on that occasion the names of familiar and, in some cases, not-so-familiar legends will once more be trotted out.
Where to begin? Perhaps with the Walgreen family, whose first drug store, in 1901, was the serendipitous result of a pauper who took a job in a Chicago drug store because he was hungry — and needed the money.
Perhaps with the fondly recalled Sheldon “Bud” Fantle, who revived and resuscitated more drug chains than one chooses to remember. Perhaps with such regional geniuses as Henry Panasci, Jim Harrison, Alan Levin, Jerry Heller, Leonard Genovese, Henry Grey and so many others who spawned the golden age of the local (not regional) drug chain.
Perhaps such immortals as Sam Walton, Sam Skaggs, Jack Eckerd, Stew Turley and the two founders of Costco, Jim Sinegal and Jeff Brotman, whose vision resulted in what is perhaps the finest mass retailer in the United States.
The list is endless. It includes, for example, Doug McMillon, who not only sustained Sam Walton’s Walmart legend but enhanced it — and continues to do so. It also includes Ron Ziegler, who transformed what had been primarily a social organization into the NACDS we know and admire today, an organization that both leads and supports mass retailing in America.
Last but certainly not least, it includes the supplier community, whose companies took a flyer on a retailing community that was largely unknown and unheralded and helped guide and transform it into one of America’s great industries, a pillar of our various communities and the place our citizens turn to when they need or want — almost anything.
That said, if you read this before December 13, grab your hat and head to the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City for an event you will never forget.
If you’re late to this party, well … that’s your loss.
