The Jewel Companies, Inc. In 1961,
The Jewel Companies, Inc. acquired the 30 Osco Drug stores in six Midwest states. In 1962, Osco's headquarters was moved from Chicago's Merchandise Mart to
Melrose Park, Illinois, and the first side-by-side "Jewel-Osco" store opened. The early Jewel-Osco combination (combo) stores were two individual stores, separated by an interior wall (and in some locations, a half-wall), allowing a customer to go back and forth between each store without having to go outside. The first Jewel-Osco Family Center was opened in Chicago's Appleton Plaza Shopping center in January 1962. The first Eisner-Osco Family Center was opened in
West Lafayette, Indiana, in September 1970. The first Osco Drug store to open adjacent to an existing Buttrey Food store occurred in
Anaconda, Montana, in July 1967. The first example of a purpose-built Buttrey-Osco Family Center occurred with the opening in Boise in September 1969. The first Star-Osco Family Center opened in
Manchester, New Hampshire, in October 1970. After the merger, all of Jewel's subsidiaries soon had an Osco Drug. Some
Eisner Food Stores locations were re-branded "Eisner-Osco". When Jewel acquired
Star Market in 1964, the first Osco Drug in New England was opened, and some were next to Star Market locations and were branded as "Star-Osco". By 1968, Osco grew to 168 stores in sixteen states. During most of the 1960s, Osco operated as two divisions – 'City Osco', comprising the Chicago, Illinois, and Chicago suburb stores and 'Country Osco' (all the other Oscos). These two divisions were combined in 1968 and formed Osco Drug, Inc. Also in 1968, Osco's headquarters relocated from Melrose Park, Illinois to
Franklin Park, Illinois. Later that year, the Jewel Imports procurement group was established to import a broad range of general merchandise from around the world to sell in Osco stores. When The Jewel Companies Inc. acquired Montana-based
Buttrey Food Stores in 1966, many of the stores were converted to a combination store format and bannered as "Buttrey-Osco" with common checkout stands but separate store management, all under one roof. By the early 1980s, Buttrey eventually operated 60 stores in Montana, North Dakota, western Minnesota, Wyoming, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and Idaho. Buttrey stores were spread thinly over a wide territory from the Cascades to the Red River Valley. Outside of the
Chicago metropolitan area, Osco operated stand-alone pharmacies (or free standing stores). In the early years, many of the Jewel and Osco combination stores maintained different operating hours from one another and on certain days such as holidays, one side of the combo store would be open, while the other would be closed. By the early 1980s, new and remodeled combo stores had the 'wall' removed and the store became one, and to this day, Osco retains control over drug, general merchandise, pharmacy and liquor departments in the Jewel Osco combo stores. In the late 1960s, Osco was seeking to purchase or build a photofinishing plant to service its stores. At the time, the company was using outside vendors, and the film developing quality and service was inconsistent. In 1970, working with
Kodak, Osco built a photofinishing lab in
Elgin, Illinois. The facility, Crest Photo Lab opened in 1971, and serviced Osco's Chicago, Central and Eastern region stores. The Elgin photo lab expanded several times over the years. As both Osco and its photofinishing market share grew, three more photo plants were added: Alves Photo Service
Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1980, Rich Photo Lab
Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1984 and Drewry Photocolor
Burbank, California, in 1987 (renamed Crest Photo in 1988). The photo labs were sold to
Kodak's Qualex photo processing division in 1996, prompted by the emergence of in-store one-hour photo labs and digital photography technology. In 1974, Osco's headquarters were relocated from Franklin Park, Illinois, to a new facility at 1818 Swift Drive in
Oak Brook, Illinois.
Acquisition of Sav-on Drugs In November 1980, The Jewel Companies Inc. purchased Sav-on Drugs, Inc. which was headquartered in
Anaheim, California, and had 150 stores in California, Nevada and Texas. The Sav-on chain became Osco's 'Western Region'.
American Stores Company In 1984,
American Stores Company, which consisted of
Alpha Beta,
Acme Markets, and Skaggs, acquired The Jewel Companies Inc.
American Drug Stores, Inc. In 1989, a new subsidiary, American Drug Stores, Inc., was formed and consisted of
American Stores drugstore holdings of Osco Drug, Sav-on Drugs, the Osco side of the
Jewel-Osco food-drug combination stores and RxAmerica. RxAmerica began earlier in 1989 as a mail service prescription fulfillment center with a facility in
Salt Lake City, Utah.
Sav-on re-branding and relaunching American Stores had a strategy to build a nationwide network of pharmacies, streamline operations and advertising to gain national recognition for the brand, especially for the high-margin private label products. The name Osco Drug was chosen as the national chain banner because of the large number of stores which already had that name and existed in various parts of the US. The name change was completed for the
Skaggs drugstores in 1985 and then for the
Sav-on stores in 1986. The name "Osco" did not resonate well with ''Sav-on's
Southern California customer base. American Stores eventually made the decision to change the name of the former Sav-on'' stores back to Sav-on Drugs. Rumors circulated at the time claiming that the reason for the name change back to "Sav-on" was due to "Osco" having the same pronunciation as the Spanish word (oss-ko), which means "nausea" or "disgust", a considerable factor within Southern California's heavily Hispanic market. This explanation for the name change was refuted by American Stores. The name change on all stores was completed in 1989, and the Sav-on Drugs brand was re-launched in Southern California and Nevada.
Sav-on Express, Reliable Drug, Clark Drug At the same time that the company was making major divestments in the early 1990s, American Stores also looked for opportunities to make strategic minor acquisitions that would enhance its position in the main markets where it needed to strengthen market share. • The company's California drugstore operations were enhanced through the early 1992 $60 million purchase of 85
CVS Stores (63
CVS Pharmacy drugstores and the rights to operate 22 CVS health and beauty aid stores) from the
Melville Corporation. These stores converted to the Sav-on Drugs and Sav-on Express banners. Later that year, 30
Thrifty and
Rx Plus drugstores in Arizona and Nevada were acquired. • The following year
Reliable Drug (a 55 unit chain) in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri was bought. These stores were soon re-bannered as Osco Drug stores. • In February 1995, American Stores spent about $37 million for 17
Clark Drug stores in southern California, which were then converted to the Sav-on Drugs name.
Consolidation of operations In 1992, American Stores shifted its strategy from that of a holding company to a centralized operating company. As a result of the decision, common functions among American Stores' operating divisions (procurement, distribution logistics, payroll, human resources, etc.) were removed from the operating divisions, consolidated and run centrally. From 1992 through 1998, American Stores consolidated operations and moved responsibilities of their division offices to their headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although 'American Stores' food divisions retained an operating presence in their geographical locations and other centralized marketing, merchandising and other staff functions were relocated between 1992 and 1998 from Oak Brook, Illinois, to Salt Lake City to occupy the then-new American Stores Tower. Pharmacy operations were relocated to Scottsdale Arizona with certain pharmacy systems-related resources continuing to operate from the Chicago area after being relocated to 3030 Cullerton Drive in Franklin Park, Illinois. After American Drug Stores' move to Salt Lake City, Utah, was complete in 1998, Osco's Oak Brook, Illinois, 1818 Swift Drive headquarters was sold to the
Follett Corporation.
Osco Foodmarts In 1994, American Stores converted 25 Jewel Food Stores in Chicago, Illinois, to Osco Drug free-standing stores. These older and smaller Jewel stand-alone stores were closed so that American Stores could focus on the combination formats only for Jewel and to expand Osco's presence in Chicago as a response to
Walgreens increasing market dominance. The Osco stores replacing the Jewel stores contained expanded food and produce presentations and were coined 'Osco Foodmarts'.
Health 'n' Home To extend its core drugstore business, in November 1995 American Drug Stores launched a new format called '''Health 'n' Home''', which was a , 18,000-item home health care superstore. The first Health 'n' Home opened in Phoenix, Arizona, and by late 1997 there were 20 Health 'n' Home stores in four states.
RxAmerica In 1998, American Stores RxAmerica division and
Longs Drug Stores Integrated Health Concepts (IHC) division agreed to merge their Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) ventures. Under terms of the joint venture, RxAmerica and its former corporate partner, Geneva Pharmaceuticals, parted ways, and RxAmerica combined with Longs' IHC division in a 50/50 partnership. The alliance created a national PBM of nearly 1,400 Longs and American Stores pharmacy outlets and a nationwide network of 40,000 pharmacies serving some 3 million patients under contract. Longs and Albertsons remained equal partners up though 2001, when Albertsons sold their 50% interest to Longs. ==Albertsons, Inc.==