WALGREENS

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Wednesday unveiled plans to establish deeper roots on its home turf with its “Chicago Hometown Investment Initiative,” a plan that will create an estimated 600 new jobs in the city over the next two years and will quadruple the number of Walgreens’ food oasis stores.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT — In June 1997, the cover of Wired magazine showed Apple’s logo with a crown of thorns and the foreboding word “Pray.” Amid the nascent tech boom, the company’s stock hit a low of about $12 per share that summer. The future, it seemed, was IBM-compatible.

(THE NEWS: Rite Aid shows off innovation with Wellness store. For the full story, click here.)

BOSTON — There’s a tremendous upside for retailers and suppliers, but that upside will come from doing things differently than in years past, as well as grappling with fragmentation. Those were a few of the key messages Bryan Gildenberg, chief knowledge officer of Kantar Retail, had for attendees of Monday morning’s business session at NACDS Marketplace in Boston.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens is making online shopping more convenient for its customers with its new Web pickup service.

VERNON HILLS, Ill. — George Riedl has been named president of Advanced Marketing & Sales, AMS announced Thursday.

Riedl, a 27-year Walgreens veteran, will be actively involved in all areas of the company and will have all sales and marketing departments reporting to him, according to a statement released by AMS.

At Walgreens, Riedl served as the drug store chain's EVP marketing and merchandising from 2003 until late 2008 before being shifted to SVP pharmacy innovation in March 2009. Riedl retired from Walgreens at the end of that year.

NANTUCKET, Mass. — Walgreens CFO Wade Miquelon said that the chain's decision to break its ties with pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts was the best decision, according to a Reuters report.

Caling it a "principled stand," Miquelon, who spoke at the Jefferies 2011 Global Consumer Conference in Nantucket, Mass., on Thursday, said that "under any scenario of what Express Scripts is proposing ... it's much better for us to go it alone," Reuters reported.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Sales may have been flat overall, but a closer look revealed there was a lot to be positive about in Rite Aid’s fiscal first quarter 2012 earnings, as the company managed significant expense improvement and stronger same-store sales growth. Bottom line: Rite Aid narrowed its losses considerably, and that ain’t all expense control.

KINGSTON, Pa. — Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., on Monday propositioned a bill that would allow independent drug stores to band together in an effort to increase their collective pharmaceutical buying power.