Drug Emporium is the name of a discount drug store

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

, founded in 1977 in Columbus, Ohio, that was sold to several different buyers during 2000 to 2001. Although several store locations continue to use the Drug Emporium name, these locations are no longer affiliated with the now-defunct Columbus-based corporation. At the company's high water mark in the 1990s, there were almost 300 locations scattered throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, including stores that operated under the F&M and VIX banners. The company declared bankruptcy in April 2001 as a condition of its sale to Snyder Drug of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Various causes have been attributed, with most citing the company's failure to effectively compete with

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, a ...

CVS Corporation CVS Health Corporation (previously CVS Corporation and CVS Caremark Corporation) is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance provi ...

and other drug store chains. Additionally, much time, effort and money was spent attempting to leverage the power of the

brick and mortar Brick and mortar (also bricks and mortar or B&M) refers to a physical presence of an organization or business in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases r ...

Drug Emporium locations into the failed DrugEmporium.com

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...

that was seen as the company's future. This " click and mortar" approach, typical of the pre-

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mentality of the late 1990s, never fully materialized and served only to deepen the company's economic troubles. The large base of franchised

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

locations, along with company-owned

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locations were sold off and a single location in Lafayette, Louisiana to independent owners. Then, on September 12, 2003, Snyder Drug closed all of the remaining corporate-owned stores in

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, New York,

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Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, Oklahoma,

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, and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

due to significant capital infusions and to escape bankruptcy. Although the chain was founded in Columbus, Ohio, it no longer has stores in its home state. Snyder Drug was owned by the

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Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

, Alberta, Canada until its sale to

in 2010. Drug Emporium currently operates in two independently owned store groups run by former franchisers. Discount Emporium Inc. operates three West Virginia-owned stores located in Barboursville and Charleston. Longview, Texas-based Gibson Sales, L.P., operates a larger group of 14 stores throughout markets in central and northern Texas; Lafayette and Shreveport, in Louisiana; and Little Rock, Arkansas. The new concept Drug Emporiums feature a health food store within each store. Since 2003 Drug Emporium TV ads have featured a bear dancing to the song "

Walk the Dinosaur "Walk the Dinosaur" is a song by Was (Not Was), released in 1987, from their album ''What Up, Dog?'' Song info The tune features a tight, funky sound, punctuated by horns and a cowbell. When released in the UK in 1987, the song reached No. 10 on ...

" by Was (Not Was). The Recording Workshop – RECW continues to use a commercial from the 1980s for one of its sound-for-picture classes. Students are instructed to place several sound effects into the commercial, as well as one student doing a voiceover. In August 2019, Drug Emporium hosted a grand re-opening after the renovation and expansion of several of their departments in Texas.

References

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External links

Big A Drug (California Locations)
Defunct pharmacies of the United States Companies based in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area Retail companies established in 1977 Retail companies disestablished in 2003 Defunct companies based in Ohio Health care companies based in Ohio