Big B, Inc. was a

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

-based

drugstore A pharmacy (also called drugstore in American English or community pharmacy or chemist in Commonwealth English) is a premises which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacist oversees the fulfillment of m ...

chain. The company began operation in 1968 as division of Birmingham based Bruno's Supermarkets. Most of its stores were located next to a Bruno's, Food World or FoodMax. Big B also operated a discount drugstore chain called Drugs For Less. The company had close to $800 million (~$ in ) in revenue by the end of 1996. In 1982, Big B was spun off from the Bruno's Supermarkets into an independent company, Big B, Inc., based in

Bessemer, Alabama Bessemer is a city in Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County, Alabama, United States and a southwestern suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham. The population was 26,019 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is within the Bi ...

. In 1989, Big B acquired 85 Reed Drug and Lee Drug stores from

Peoples Drug Peoples Drug was a chain of drugstores based in Alexandria, Virginia. Founded in 1905, Peoples was subsequently purchased by Lane Drug in 1975, Imasco in 1984, and finally by CVS/pharmacy, CVS in 1990, which continued to run the stores under the ...

, giving them a presence in Atlanta, north Georgia and western Alabama. A few years later, Big B acquired 80 "Treasury Drug" stores from

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

's Thrift Drug division. Big B was finally becoming a major drug retailer in the Atlanta area. In 1996, Big B was acquired by

Revco Revco Discount Drug Stores (known simply as Revco or Revco, D.S.), once based in Twinsburg, Ohio, was a major drug store chain operating through the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the Southeastern United States. The chain's stock w ...

, and within a year Revco was acquired by CVS. By the end of 1997, all Big B Drugs and Revco were operating as CVS/Pharmacy.

References

*Bruno's Supermarkets annual reports 1971-1983 *Big B, Inc. Annual Reports 1982-1995 *Imasco, Limited Annual Report 1986-1989 {{CVS Health Defunct pharmacies of the United States Companies based in Birmingham, Alabama Defunct companies based in Alabama CVS Health Retail companies established in 1968 Health care companies based in Alabama Retail companies disestablished in 1996 1968 establishments in Alabama 1996 disestablishments in Alabama American companies established in 1968 American companies disestablished in 1996