Walgreens opens Friday in downtown Kalispell

The Daily Inter Lake

Montana's first Walgreens store opens at 7 a.m. Friday in Kalispell at the intersection of U.S. 93 and Idaho Street.

The new 14,500-square-foot store will be the first 24-hour drugstore in the city.

"We've hired an outstanding staff whose focus will be delivering exceptional customer service to Kalispell," manager Daniel Brockman said. "We believe customers will appreciate the level of convenience they'll find in our drive-through pharmacy, automatic prescription refills and our nationwide network of pharmacies."

Brockman has managed Walgreens stores for more than 19 years. Before coming to Montana, he opened stores in Boston, Cleveland and Idaho.

The new Walgreens will carry 25,000 everyday items, including medications, perfume and cosmetics, greeting cards, soft drinks, dairy products, frozen foods and snacks. Customers will find a selection of cameras and film in the photo department along with services such as instant passport photos and one-hour photo finishing.

Walgreens' advanced pharmacy system, Intercom Plus, links all its pharmacies, keeps customer records and helps the pharmacist prepare prescriptions.

"The system allows the pharmacist to spend more time counseling patients," Brockman said.

It also allows customers to refill prescriptions at any Walgreens store across the country. Customers also can take advantage of Auto Prefills, a system that will mark monthly medications to be refilled automatically, then calls to remind customers their prescriptions are ready to be picked up.

Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain, with 4,717 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico.

The store began in 1901 when Charles R. Walgreen Sr. purchased the Chicago drugstore where he had been working as a pharmacist. Walgreens reportedly invented the milkshake in the early 1920s. Customers stood three and four deep around the soda fountain to buy the "double-rich chocolate malted milk."

By the 1960s Walgreens had filled its 100 millionth prescription, making it the top drugstore chain. It remains the largest drugstore chain in the United States. In 2002, Walgreens became the first drugstore chain to offer prescription labels in multiple languages chain-wide. Labels can be printed in one of 14 languages. In March 2003 Walgreens opened its 4,000th store in Van Nuys, Calif.