Shoppers
 
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Drugstore, Retail |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Founder | Murray Koffler |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Key people
|
Mike Motz (President) |
| Products | Drugs, Health |
| Parent |
Loblaw Companies (2014–present) |
| Subsidiaries | Murale |
| Website | www.shoppersdrugmart.ca |
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Footnotes / references |
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Footnotes / references
Number of Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores: 1,307
Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,253 stores operating under the names Shoppers Drug Mart in nine provinces and two territories and Pharmaprix in Quebec.
Founded by Murray Koffler, the Koffler family still retains ownership of the Super-Pharm pharmacy which is in Israel, Poland, and China. Super-Pharm uses the same logo as Shoppers Drug Mart, created by the artist Sylvain Liu. It also uses some of the same private-label brands, such as Life Brand and Quo. In 2013, Brampton-based Loblaw Companies acquired Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation for $12.4 billion in cash and stock.
In addition to its retail formats, the company owns and operates several specialty services. This includes 56 Shoppers Home Health Care stores, which sell and service assisted-living devices, home-care products, and mobility and medical equipment; Shoppers Drug Mart Specialty Health Network, a provider of specialty drug distribution, pharmacy and comprehensive patient support services, and; MediSystem Technologies Inc., a provider of pharmaceutical products and clinical services to long-term care facilities and retirement communities. Many locations offer prescription delivery free of charge, utilizing a fleet of corporate owned vehicles. Shoppers Drug Mart is a unique and independent operating division of Loblaw Companies Limited.
At the age of twenty, Murray Koffler inherited two Koffler's Drugs pharmacies in suburban Toronto (one in the Don Mills Centre shopping mall). By 1962, Koffler's had grown to a chain of 17 pharmacies, which he renamed "Shoppers Drug Mart" in the 1970s. The first store named "Shoppers Drug Mart" was at Shoppers World Danforth from which it derived the name.
Koffler revamped the concept of the 20th century “drug store” in Canada by removing the soda fountain and emphasizing the dispensary, requiring his pharmacists to wear starched white coats as a symbol of their professionalism. In the mid-1950s, he began acquiring other drug stores and organized them around a then-novel franchising concept: pharmacist “associates” would own and operate their own stores within the system and share in the profits. In 1968, Shoppers Drug Mart grew to 52 stores in Ontario by merging with 33 Plaza Drugstores. In 1971, Shoppers Drug Mart purchased 87 Cunningham Drug Stores in British Columbia and Alberta. The first Pharmaprix store opened in 1972 in Québec. In 1974, Lord’s Supervalue Pharmacies 26 stores in Atlantic Canada joined the Shoppers Drug Mart family. In 1986 Shoppers Drug Mart bought Super X Drugstores, an Ontario-area chain of 72 stores. In 1992, the company bought up the Western Canadian chain Pinder's Drugs, and followed this in 1995 with a chain of 24 Bi-Rite Drug Stores based in western Canada. Also in 1995, Shoppers Drug Mart acquired 135 Big V Drugstores. In 1996, the first Shoppers Home Health Care store opened.
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Wikipedia