Walgreens opens Fort Scott store, employs 25

After nearly nine months of construction and preparation, the new Walgreens drugstore is open and ready for business.

The 10,500-square-foot building, located at 2229 S. Main St., the corner of 23rd and U.S. Highway 69, opened Oct. 5 with a staff of about 25 people. Plans to build the Fort Scott store began nearly two years ago, officials said.

Company officials said they decided to locate the new drugstore in Fort Scott because of its proximity to Mercy Health Center and to provide additional pharmacy services in Fort Scott and other nearby towns.

"We were attracted to the area because of the hospital and the need for more pharmacy services in the surrounding area," Walgreens Corporate Spokeswoman Carol Hively said.

The nearest Walgreens store is located about 30 miles south of Fort Scott in Pittsburg.

Walgreens offers extensive pharmacy services -- in addition to drive-through window service -- and also offers patients a variety of options to refill medications. A touch-tone telephone service allows a patient to enter their prescription number and request a time for a refill without having to speak directly to pharmacy staff.

Patients may also visit the company's Internet site, www.walgreens.com, and print out his or her prescription history and refill those prescriptions at any of more than 6,000 Walgreens drugstores in 48 states and Puerto Rico, Hively said. All Walgreens stores are connected by satellite.

The Web site also enables customers to purchase any company products, access personal prescription files and research health information, a company statement said.

Walgreens also offers Intercom Plus, an advanced pharmacy system that allows the pharmacist to spend more time counseling patients on their medicines, and also allows customers to obtain refills at any store, even if the store is in another state, Hively said.

Other than pharmacy services, the store also offers one-hour photography processing, passport photos and digital photo services. Customers can share photos with family and friends across the country when they upload digital photos from a home computer for pick-up at any Walgreens store nationwide.

The store also features a cosmetics department that offers exclusive beauty products and employs full-time beauty advisors, Hively said.

More information about Walgreens products, services and other benefits can be found on the company's Web site.

The first store in the Walgreens chain was a pharmacy founded by Charles R. Walgreen in 1901 on the south side of Chicago, Ill. The business grew into a chain with stores also offering personal and household products, food, gifts, toys, and photographic printing services. The company eventually expanded into foreign markets.

Walgreens reached 53.8 billion in sales in 2007, the company's 33rd consecutive year of record sales and earnings, making it the nation's largest drugstore chain and the eighth largest retailer. A typical Walgreens store carries more than 25,000 products and averages about $8.5 million in annual sales. Nationwide, Walgreens stores serve almost 5 million customers daily, the company statement said.

In 1984, the company celebrated the opening of its 1,000th store, Now, Walgreens opens about 425 new stores each year and plans to have 7,000 stores open by the year 2010.

The Fort Scott store is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The drive-through window and pharmacy are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and are closed on Sundays.

Call the store at (620) 223-2402 for more information.