Duane Reade Inc. ( ) is a chain of

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

and convenience stores owned by

Walgreens Boots Alliance Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. is an American-British-Swiss holding company headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois that owns the retail pharmacy chains Walgreens and Boots, as well as several pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution companies ...

. Its stores are primarily located in New York City, and known for high-volume, small store layouts in densely populated

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

locations. In 2012, the company headquarters was moved to

40 Wall Street 40 Wall Street, also known as the Trump Building, is a Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau Street (Manhattan), Nassau and William Street (Manhattan), William streets in the Financial District, Manh ...

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

, the location of its newest flagship store.

History

Founded in 1960, the chain was started with three stores by Abraham, Eli, and Jack Cohen, with a warehouse located between Duane Street and Reade Street on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

.Mount, Ian (2005-05-29)
The Mystery of Duane Reade
. nymag.com. Retrieved July 3, 2007. "Founded in 1960 by the brothers Abraham, Eli, and Jack Cohen, Duane Reade started as a three-store health-and-beauty chain that took the name of the two streets that bounded its lower-Broadway warehouse." Duane Reade takes its name from the company's first successful full-service drugstore, which opened in 1960 on Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets in

TriBeCa Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stree ...

just north of the Financial District. The streets themselves were named after early American politicians

James Duane James Duane (February 6, 1733 – February 1, 1797) was an American Founding Father, attorney, jurist, and American Revolutionary leader from New York. He served as a delegate to the First Continental Congress, Second Continental Congress and ...

(1733-1797) and Joseph Reade (1694-1771).Pickman, Sarah (2006-09-28)

. Archaeology (magazine), Archaeology. Retrieved June 17, 2013. The Cohen family sold Duane Reade to

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

in 1992 "for a reported $239 million". Bain Capital in 1997 then sold majority ownership of the chain to

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) was a U.S. investment bank founded by William H. Donaldson, Richard Jenrette, and Dan Lufkin in 1959. Its businesses included securities underwriting; sales and trading; investment and merchant banking; finan ...

. Duane Reade completed its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

(IPO) on February 10, 1998, trading on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...

under the

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. In short, ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols or characters (generally Latin letters ...

DRD. On August 2, 2004, the company announced it was acquired by Oak Hill Capital Partners and was again a private company. Gary Charboneau, the company's senior vice-president of sales and marketing since 1993, explained his store layout strategy in ''New York'' magazine in 2005. He designed each store using four sections: one for

beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

and cosmetic products, another that serves as a

, a third section for seasonal products such as cards and candy, and a fourth for

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is i ...

and

grocery A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

items. Cosmetic items were placed near store entrances, pharmacy sections were moved to the rear of stores since—according to Charboneau—"people don’t browse for prescriptions", and the other two sections occupied remaining space. As Ian Mount wrote in the magazine article, "half of Duane Reade’s sales come from food, cosmetics, and the like." Under CEO Anthony Cuti, who was previously

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of Pathmark, the store expanded from 59 stores in 1996 to 249 stores in May 2005, with more stores in New York City than any other drugstore chain. In September 1998, Duane Reade acquired Rock Bottom Stores Inc, another drug retail chain with 38 retail stores, for $30 million plus an additional $31 million for the stores inventories. While sales for Duane Reade rose from $1.14 billion in the 2001

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

to $1.38 billion in 2003, the combined impact of union disputes, a local

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, and the destruction of their best-performing store in the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

forced the company to slow its expansion from 30 new stores a year in 2001 and 2002 to no more than 17 a year in 2003 and 2004. Despite its expansion, the company had long-term debts of $405 million by October 2008, losing $33.1 million in the first half of that year. Almost all of its stores are located in New York City or the immediate

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separa ...

. On April 19, 2006, it was announced that after nearly 5 years, Duane Reade agreed to settle with Disabled In Action to make all of its stores

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, T ...

-compliant. According to the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ...

'', Duane Reade estimated it would take two years to inspect and revamp its stores for wheelchair access. In November 2008, Duane Reade began rolling out a new logo. In April 2009, Duane Reade hired

DeVito/Verdi DeVito/Verdi is an American-based advertising and public relations company, headquartered in New York City, formed in 1993 by partners Sal DeVito and Ellis Verdi when founding partner and Creative Director, John Follis, left Follis/DeVito/Verdi to ...

as its lead advertising agency.''Ad week''
"DeVito/Verdi Takes Duane Reade"
April 7, 2000, retrieved June 17, 2009 On April 9, 2010, Duane Reade was acquired by the

Walgreen Company 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, an ...

for $1.075 billion consisting of $618 million in cash and $427 million of assumed debt. The transaction includes Duane Reade corporate office, 257 stores, and 2 distribution centers. On July 6, 2011, Duane Reade opened a location at

Duane Reade (Pennsylvania Station - New York)

Litigation and disputes

Duane Reade and its executives have been involved in various disputes with federal and local governments and labor unions over its business practices. Two unions and Duane Reade Inc. struck a deal on April 11, 2006, to close a five-year contract dispute. The three-year deal covers "all of Duane Reade's clerks, cashiers, pharmacy clerks, pharmacy technicians, and photo technicians", and it closes a dispute dating from September 2001, when their previous contract expired. As part of the deal, Duane Reade and the unions settled all outstanding union and company claims before the National Labor Relations Board. In November 1997, the company settled charges that it sold drugs and other products in its

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

stores that were expired or overpriced. It agreed to pay a total of $200,000 in

civil penalties A civil penalty or civil fine is a financial penalty imposed by a government agency as restitution for wrongdoing. The wrongdoing is typically defined by a codification of legislation, regulations, and decrees. The civil fine is not considered ...

, investigative costs, and fees, and to comply with the state's laws and regulations, but did not admit wrongdoing. Its embattled CEO Anthony Cuti, along with former CFO William Tennant, were indicted on October 9, 2008, in Manhattan federal court for falsely reporting company income and conspiring to commit

securities fraud Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in lo ...

from December 2000 to June 2005. Cuti had already been replaced in November 2005 by industry veteran Richard Dreiling, COO of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

-area-based

Longs Drugs Longs Drugs is an American chain owned by parent company CVS Health with approximately 70 drugstores throughout the state of Hawaii and formerly in the Continental US. Before being acquired by parent company in 2008, it was a chain of over 500 s ...

stores. In June 2010, Cuti and Tennant were convicted of securities fraud occurring between November 2000 and June 2005. They faced up to 20 years in prison. Cuti was sentenced on November 15, 2010, to three years in prison; Tennant was sentenced in September 2011 to time served, supervised release for three years and a $10,000 fine.

References

External links

*
Duane Reade Inc EDGAR Filing History
{{coord missing, New York (state) Convenience stores of the United States Pharmacies of the United States Shops in New York City Companies based in Manhattan American companies established in 1960 Retail companies established in 1960 1960 establishments in New York City Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Health care companies based in New York (state) Walgreens Boots Alliance 1998 initial public offerings 2004 mergers and acquisitions 2010 mergers and acquisitions