For some reason the name “Rexall” popped into my mind a minute ago and I had to see what Rexall - Wikipedia had to say about it, to be sure the topic was worth a thread. I also did a keyword search on “rexall” to see that there have been quite a few mentions in posts, but no specific threads devoted to the concept/name/whatever.
So I thought I’d start one. Whatever Rexall means to you, or makes you think of, is okay for this thread.
For starters, do you know where and when the “Rx” thing got started?
Primary association for me is as the sponsor of the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, a Jack Benny spin-off that was (in my opinion) loads funnier than Jack Benny ever was. Sponsorship was integrated into the show in humourous ways. (The best one was the one where Phil and Remley set out to ingratiate themselves to the sponsor by designing a new drug and testing it on the neighborhood pain-in-the-neck kid, Julius. Good times.)
Secondary association: Trying to persuade my father that the “Rx” symbol didn’t really originate with Rexall, as he insisted, but had been in use as shorthand for “recipe” (latin verb for “take”, which “recipes” for compounds traditionally started with) for hundreds of years.
I was surprised to find out (ten years ago or so) that the brand was still extant.
In the little Alabama town where I first became acquainted with Rexall, it was the only drug store worth mentioning, and may have been the only one in town.
I’ve been trying to remember what other choices for prescription-filling locations there were in those days, in larger communities perhaps, and how long it was before Rexall had real competition.
Surely Walgreen and eventually CVS and the like. But I have a hole in my memory on such matters. What were the drug stores you knew or went to as a kid?
I certainly remember them from my youth. It looks like there are a few left in Oregon maybe. I remember as a young adult studying medical terminology and realizing the Rx for prescription was the root of the Rexall name.
My favorite drug store was Pennywise in Caldwell Idaho. Grandpa would take my brothers and me there when we’d visit Caldwell and I could usually score a model airplane out of the trip.
Pennywise has been around for a long time. I see it’s still there, complete with their owl mascot. http://www.drugstorecaldwell.com/
I finally remembered one that is now defunct in this area: SuperX.
I believe there was also a SuperD at some point. Walgreen and CVS seem to be the dominant ones in the USA. I buy my meds at a Kroger Pharmacy these days.
Here’s a big list of chain pharmacies and drug stores:
When I was a little kid (early 1970s, suburban Chicago), our neighbor was a pharmacist, and worked at the Rexall drug store in Lisle. It’s where we went when we need prescriptions, or other drug-store stuff. Being a nerdy kid, I liked having a calendar in my room; I always had the free calendar which they gave out at the Rexall.
Lisle had three drug stores (the Rexall, a Walgreens, and an Osco, as part of a Jewel grocery store), which I think was rather a lot for a suburb of 5K or so, at that time.