Perry Drug Stores

Perry Drug Stores

Industry	Retail
Founded	1957; 67 years ago (1957)
Defunct	1995; 29 years ago (1995)
Fate	Acquired by Rite aid
Successor	Rite Aid
Headquarters	Pontiac, Michigan, United States
Key people	Jack A. Robinson - chief executive officer, founder David Schwartz - chief operating officer, president Jerry Stone - chief financing officer, vice president
Products	Retail, Pharmacy

Perry Drug Stores was an American retail pharmacy chain founded in 1957 in the city of Pontiac, Michigan, United States. At its peak in the 1980s, Perry operated more than 200 drug stores, primarily in the state of Michigan, as well as 200 Auto Works auto parts stores and fourteen A. L. Price discount health and beauty aids outlets. In 1995, Perry Drug Stores was bought out by Rite Aid, a pharmacy chain based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. The Perry chain, which at the time comprised 224 stores, was the largest acquisition ever made by Rite Aid. In addition, this acquisition brought the Rite Aid name to the Detroit area for the first time.

Founder Jack A. Robinson opened his first Perry Drug Store in 1957 on Perry Street in Pontiac, Michigan.^[1]

In 1978, a prototype Perry store was opened, featuring an expanded sporting goods line, a home and automotive center, and live pets for sale.^[2] Auto Works, an automotive parts retail chain, was introduced in 1982.^[2]

Twenty-six Cunningham Drug locations were spun off by the chain's owner into a new chain called Apex Drug. By 1985, the Apex Drug locations and several other Cunningham locations were acquired by Perry, while the Cunningham locations in Florida remained in operation.^[3]

In 1981, Perry Drug expanded into the Chicago, Illinois market for the first time.^[4] (The chain had previously tried to enter Chicago through a failed acquisition of DeKoven Drugs.)^[2] A year later, these stores were sold to businessmen Fred Barney and Bill Cartwright, two veteran businessmen who formed the Chicago operations into Perry Drug Chicago.^[5]

Several units in Michigan were acquired in 1990 from Revco.^[6] This acquisition made Perry the dominant drugstore chain in the Detroit area and expanded Perry's presence to the Upper Peninsula for the first time.^[6]

Perry Drug Stores posted a brief period of sharp declines in sales in 1990, with locations in Indiana and Wisconsin being sold off.^[7][8] By 1993, the Perry Drug Chicago locations were re-acquired and liquidated.^[9]

After its out-of-state operations were sold, Perry continued to expand its presence within Michigan. Many locations were remodeled to the chain's "store of the '90s" format;^[7] in addition, an online computer system called PerryLink was implemented at all stores, allowing for customers to have their prescriptions filled at any location.^[10]

Rite Aid, a drugstore chain based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, acquired twenty-five locations from Hook's Drug Stores in 1994, subsequently selling nine of the locations to Perry.^[11] One year later, Rite Aid acquired all 224 of Perry Drug Stores' locations, including the former Hook's Drugs locations.^[12] The acquisition of Perry Drug Stores in 1995 was the largest acquisition made by Rite Aid. It also brought Rite Aid to the Detroit area, where it previously had no stores.^{[13][14][failed verification]}

Perry Drug Stores, Inc. remained an active subsidiary of Rite Aid (owning stores held by the company at its closure), as shown in the company's October 2023 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.^[15]

In addition to the drugstore chain, Perry owned two other specialty chains: Auto Works and A.L. Price.

Unlike other drug stores, Perry diversified by carry non-traditional items such as automotive parts like brakes, shocks, exhaust systems, and carburetors in their drug stores as early as 1975.^[16][17] By 1978, Perry would have 15 out of its 56 stores, all in lower Michigan, carrying auto parts.^[18]

A few years later, Perry decided to open standalone auto part stores called Auto Works. By March 1983, three stores had been open in Michigan and Chicago with plans to open 20 more.^[19]

In July 1983, Perry signed a letter of intent to acquire Indianapolis-based Fleenor's Inc. with its chain of 50 auto part stores in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.^[20][21] After the acquisition was finalized, the Fleenor Auto Supply stores were rebranded FAS Auto Works.^[22] In October 1984, Perry acquired Corvair Auto Parts with its chain of 46 auto part stores in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia.^[23][24][25]

By May 1985, all FAS Auto Works and Corvair Auto Works stores were rebrand to just Auto Works.^[26]

Perry sold its Auto works division with its 252 stores in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia to Northern Automotive in Northern Automotive for $51 million in February 1988.^[27]

After five years of ownership, Northern Automotive failed to turn the ailing chain around and subsequently sold Auto Works with its 159 retail stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and West Virginia to Hahn Automotive Warehouse in November 1993 for $13 million in cash.^[28][29]

Hahn finally closed Auto Works with its 53 stores in August 1997 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.^[30]

A.L. Price was a deep-discount health and beauty aids retailer with sixteen locations in the Detroit area that was started in 1983.^[31]

A.L. Price had 16 stores at the beginning of 1990.^[32] In April 1990, Perry Drug Stores announced that it has plans to sell off fourteen of its sixteen A. L. Price locations for $14.8 million and convert the remaining two into Perry Drug stores, as part of a decision to focus entirely on the drugstore chain itself.^[33][31] In March 1993, the chain, under new management, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the time of the filing, A.L. Price had 12 stores.^[34] As one of the creditors, Perry initially announced that it plans to buy all 12 stores back for $2 million plus inventory,^[35] but latter change the number to 11 and increase the purchase price to $10.8 million^[36][37]

By May 1994, Perry closed all of the re-purchased A.L. Price stores, except for three. Perry had plans of converting one of the stores into a Perry store, merging the inventory of the second store into an nearby existing Perry store, and no announced plans for the remaining store.^[38] The remaining three stores were finally closed by the end of 1994 with plans of converting two of the stores into drive-through pharmacies.^[39]