Farmacias El Amal
Encyclopedia
Farmacias El Amal, is regional pharmacy chain operating throughout Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. It operates more than 40 pharmacies across Puerto Rico. The chain is privately held and was founded in 1973.

Farmacias El Amal stores also contain cosmetics, photo departments as well as a basic pantry department. Farmacias El Amal is best known for its Pasaporte a la Salud Loyalty Card and aggressive promotions including their Black Friday Sales. Its largest competitors are Walgreen Co., Kmart
Kmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...

, and Walmart.

History

This chain started out as a single drugstore in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico in 1973. The chain slowly expanded throughout the 1970s and 1980s by opening several additional drugstores mostly in the Carolina and San Juan metropolitan areas. By 1994, the chain had grown to 12 drugstores. During the '80s and '90s, Farmacias El Amal were characterized by their unique aisle layout (a diagonal V) and above average square footage.

In 1995, Farmacias El Amal acquired Farmacias Moscoso, increasing its store count to 45 drugstores. The company proceeded to modernize its store base, installing POS and Pharmacy systems. The company also remodeled, relocated and opened many new stores throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Today, the chain has 60 locations across Puerto Rico.

On January 17, 2008, Walgreens
Walgreens
Walgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...

acquired 20 drugstores from Farmacias El Amal. El Amal will continue operating its other 41 stores in Puerto Rico. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and it is subject to customary closing conditions. Once the agreement is finalized, work will begin on converting the El Amal stores to Walgreens, including remodeling and changing the store names.

On February 19, 2011, El Amal drugstore chain ceased operations.

External links

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