LaVerdiere's Drug Stores

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LaVerdiere’s Drug Stores began in Waterville, Maine, in 1922, when Evariste LaVerdiere built a Main Street newsstand into a soda fountain and then a drugstore. A modest local counter with bigger ambitions, it became one of those regional names that could make a fluorescent aisle feel like hometown territory.

The family business grew into LaVerdiere’s Super Drug Stores, serving communities across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. By the 1994 sale, the chain had 72 stores. Prescriptions were central, but LaVerdiere’s was also stocked for the practical and the seasonal: everyday goods, toys, and the annual decorative avalanche of Halloween and Christmas merchandise.

LaVerdiere’s Enterprises was headquartered in Waterville, and the chain remained closely identified with the city and the LaVerdiere family. Its smaller-format stores benefited from Maine’s former Sunday-closing rules; after those blue-law restrictions changed, national mass merchants and supermarket competition made the old formula harder to sustain.

In May 1994, Rite Aid agreed to acquire LaVerdiere’s Enterprises for about $50 million as part of its Northern New England expansion. The transaction drew Federal Trade Commission scrutiny in several local pharmacy markets, and the LaVerdiere’s name was subsequently replaced on the store fronts.

Our LaVerdiere's Drug Stores collection celebrates the Maine-made super-drug emporium: prescription counter, toy aisle, holiday masks, and enough bright retail optimism to make every errand feel slightly more important than it was.