Longs Drugs is an American chain owned by parent company

CVS Health CVS Health Corporation is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance provider, among many other brands. The company is the worl ...

with approximately 70

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 ...

s throughout the

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and formerly in the Continental US. Before being acquired by parent company CVS Health in 2008, it was a chain of over 500 stores, located primarily on the

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. Besides Hawaii, it had stores located in

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and Washington, and was headquartered in

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History

The first store was founded in 1938 as Longs Self-Service Drugs, by brothers

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and Joseph Long (son-in-law of Marion Barton Skaggs, co-founder of Safeway Inc.), when they opened their first store on Piedmont Avenue in

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. The first Longs in Hawaii opened on March 29, 1954, in Honolulu. By 1971, Longs reported sales of $169 million (~$ in ) from its 54 stores. They were incorporated during the same year. The company expanded to Alaska in 1977, Arizona and Oregon in 1978, and Nevada in 1979. By 1982, Longs had 162 stores and exceeded $1 billion (~$ in ) in sales. In 1987, Longs acquired 11 Osco drugstores in

and one in

. They also sold 15 stores in

to Osco. Their sales passed $2 billion (~$ in ) for the first time in 1990. In 1993, Longs purchased Bill's Drugs, a 20-store chain located in Northern California, for $23.9 million (~$ in ). In 1995, Longs formed Integrated Health Concepts, a Pharmacy Benefit Management company. They also closed 2 stores located in

. In 1997, Longs and American Drug Stores Inc. (subsidiary of Albertson's Inc. at the time) merged their pharmacy benefit management companies to create RxAmerica, with each company retaining 50% ownership. In 1998, Longs acquired 20 Drug Emporium stores from Western Drug Distributors, Inc. 18 of the stores were located in western Washington and two in the

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Rite Aid Rite Aid Corporation is an American drugstore chain based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alex Grass under the name Thrift D Discount Center. Prior to its first bankruptcy in 2023, it was the th ...

sold Longs 32 stores located in California for $150 million (~$ in ) in October 1999, which itself were former PayLess Drug locations since 1998. On September 17, 2001, Longs exercised its option to acquire Albertson's interest in RxAmerica and established full ownership of the PBM. In 2003, Bob Long stepped down as chairman and CEO, marking the first time in the history of Longs Drugs that a member of the founding family was not involved in the company. He was replaced by Harold Somerset, and a few months later Warren Bryant, a previous Senior Vice President of

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinc ...

. In 2004 Longs acquired

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-based American Diversified Pharmacies (ADP), a mail order pharmacy. On January 1, 2006, RxAmerica began offering

Medicare Part D Medicare (United States), Medicare Part D, also called the Medicare prescription drug benefit, is an optional United States federal-government program to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for self-administered prescription drugs. Part D was enact ...

prescription drug plans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In June 2006, Longs purchased 21 retail pharmacies, from Network Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The Network pharmacies are located close to the point of care (such as hospitals, clinics, and medical office buildings), and were much smaller than Long's traditional retail stores. Longs also purchased 4 stores from PharMerica, Inc., a subsidiary of AmerisourceBergen Corporation. By 2008, CVS/pharmacy acquired Longs Drugs, and rebranded all pharmacies outside

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by the summer of the following year. In 2011, CVS closed the flagship superstore on 5100 Broadway in Oakland, CA, due to property redevelopment plans.

Acquisition

On August 12, 2008, Longs Drugs announced that they were being acquired by

, the operator of the national CVS/pharmacy chain of drugstores. CVS bought the 521 Longs locations to expand its presence on the West Coast, primarily in California. The acquisition also included access to the Hawaii market. CVS Health paid a total of $2.54 billion to acquire all outstanding shares of Longs Drugs, and hoped to save upwards of $100 million in 2009 and $140–$150 million in 2010 in expenses from synergies attained from the business combination. On September 12, 2008, the Walgreen Co. stepped in with an offer representing a $3.50 (~$ in ) per share premium over the cash purchase price offered by CVS. However, Walgreens dropped their offer on October 8, allowing CVS' deal to progress. On October 29, CVS had secured 78.07% of Longs shares, and Longs was merged into CVS the next day on October 30. According to the ''

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'', CVS retained the Longs Drugs name in the Hawaii stores "because of its high name recognition and the geographical separation." Before the merger, CVS had no full-service stores in

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or Hawaii.

Longs in popular culture

Although a

-based company, Longs had maintained stores in Hawaii long enough to become a local establishment. Its first

store, in downtown

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

, opened March 29, 1954. In 2005, ''

Honolulu Advertiser ''The Honolulu Advertiser'' was a daily newspaper published in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the largest daily newspaper in Hawaii. It published daily with special Sunday and Internet editions. ''The ...

'' columnist Lee Cataluna published a short-story collection, ''Folks You Meet in Longs, and Other Stories''. It is based on Cataluna's eponymous play which premiered August 2003 at Kumu Kahua Theatre.

Hawaii expansion

In an effort to combat Walgreens' expansion in Hawaii, CVS began a statewide expansion in 2010, with many new locations within a mile of an existing Longs Drugs. However, CVS closed two 'underperforming' stores in Honolulu in 2019.

References

External links

Longs Drugs web siteLongs Drugs Weekly Ad Page
{{CVS Health Defunct pharmacies of the United States Companies based in Contra Costa County, California Skaggs family Retail companies established in 1938 Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Retail companies based in California 1938 establishments in California CVS Health Health care companies based in Hawaii 2008 mergers and acquisitions