Happy Harry's, a Walgreens Pharmacy, is a division of the 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...

 Company which operates 76 locations in Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

 and New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. It was founded in 1962 by entrepreneur Harry Levin. It was announced on June 5, 2006 that the chain had agreed to be acquired by Walgreens.

History

In 1962, Harry Levin opened his first store in Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

 simply called "Discount Center." He quickly gained a reputation for his always-cheerful disposition, and customers soon simply referred to his store as "Happy's." In 1965, upon opening his third store, the name of the chain was changed to "Happy Harry's Discount Drugs." Just before the company's 25th anniversary in 1987, "Happy Harry" died and his son, Alan Levin, took over the growing company. At the time, Happy Harry's was the largest drugstore chain in Delaware and soon grew to 76 stores
.

Acquisition by Walgreens

On June 5, 2006 Happy Harry's announced that it would be acquired by Walgreens. The announcement of the acquisition was surprising for Walgreens, whose approach differs most notably from its competitors when it comes to growth. Walgreens expansion is fueled primarily by opening new, freestanding, locations with drive-thru pharmacies, and occasionally by quiet acquisitions of small pharmacies. Rather than expanding through mergers and public acquisitions. However, with little presence in Happy Harry's primary market, the addition of Happy Harry's was a valuable new resource for Walgreens to leverage in its continuing expansion.

Initially, Walgreens decided to keep the Happy Harry's name on its existing stores. However, the eight stores in Pennsylvania were revamped as standard stores due to Walgreens stronger branding there. The store's original logo was still used in Delaware, but was modified to read "Happy Harry's, a Walgreens Pharmacy." These stores went through significant interior and exterior modifications to conform to Walgreens standards for product display, store arrangement, and pharmacy design. Task forces from various Walgreens districts around the country were mobilized to convert the various store systems to the Walgreens equivalents. The most important conversion was for the pharmacy, whose computer system was changed to Walgreens homegrown Intercom Plus

Intercom Plus

IntercomPlus is the name of the Walgreen Company's proprietary pharmacy computer system. Originally founded as Intercom in 1981, it was the first large scale retail pharmacy computer system . It relies on VSAT satellite access and/or broadband connections to link the over 8,000 Walgreens retail,...

 pharmacy computer software, along with the installation of satellite equipment, which linked each pharmacy with over 7,000 other Walgreens pharmacies in the continental United States, Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, and 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...

. This enabled Happy Harry's customers to have prescriptions refilled and records retrieved at any Walgreens pharmacy nationwide.

In April 2011, Walgreens began converting Wilmington-area pharmacies to the Walgreens name, with no mention of Happy Harry's on the renamed locations.

External links

• Happy Harry's website at Walgreens.com
• Harry Levin Center for Pharmacy & History in Smyrna, Delaware
  Smyrna, Delaware
  Smyrna is a town in Kent and New Castle counties in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area...