Osco Drug Can Cooler

$9.99

GhostCorp Apparel - resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Give a cold drink a little touch of drugstore nostalgia with this Osco Drug can cooler. The Osco name dates to 1942, when Owners Service Company adopted the shortened name after the business’s early self-service retail beginnings. Osco later became closely associated with Jewel-Osco stores, bringing pharmacy counters into familiar grocery trips. This easygoing piece suits backyard gatherings, game nights, and collector displays, and makes a thoughtful present for people who remember Osco as part of their local shopping routine.

Osco Drug grew from a Skaggs family tradition of self-service retail. L.J. Skaggs opened a self-service drugstore in Tacoma, Washington, in 1934. L.L. Skaggs opened a Midwest chain in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1937, first using the name Pay-Less. In 1942, the business became Owners Service Company, from which the name Osco was coined, and moved its headquarters from Waterloo, Iowa, to Chicago. The Jewel Companies acquired 30 Osco stores in 1961; the first Jewel-Osco combination store opened in Chicago in 1962. Jewel acquired Sav-on Drugs, founded by Christian J. Call in San Bernardino in 1945, in November 1980. American Stores acquired Jewel in 1984 and organized its drugstore holdings under American Drug Stores in 1989. Sav-on stores briefly adopted the Osco name in 1986, then returned to Sav-on in 1989. Albertsons acquired American Stores in 1999. In 2006, CVS bought the standalone Osco and Sav-on stores, which were rebranded as CVS Pharmacy by 2007. Osco and Sav-on names continued for pharmacies inside grocery stores. SuperValu acquired Jewel and other grocery divisions in 2006; those operations later passed to Cerberus in 2013.