On Tuesday, January 10th, Walgreens opened a new 2 story flagship store in downtown Chicago, on the northeast corner of Randolph and Washington Sts. This is a 2 story, 21,000 square feet store that tests several new concepts for Walgreens, such as a sushi bar, a very expanded liquor selection with wine from $6 to $450(and I spotted what appeared to be a liqueur bottle in the liquor case that was $2000!), a pastry counter, a juice, smoothie, and self-service fro yo(as in the Asian style tart frozen yogurt popularized by Red Mango, Pinkberry, etc.) station, and finally a nail bar in the beauty section that starts at $10-15. Can't find this particular article at this moment, but I did see an earlier one in one of the business papers where someone in Walgreens was interviewed, and stated they were considering opening something like 3 to 4 dozen more stores like this, throughout the country.
Let's cut to the case, and get to the pictures, shall we? Brief captions are below each pic, with some occasional silly humor thrown in. That's just my own style.
The entrance to the store.
Walgreens is supposedly supposed to be one of the 50 reasons you love Chicago the most? Then again we are inside well, yeah! Kudos for not forgetting the Picasso....
Front half of the first floor. From front to rear going counterclockwise, the juice and smoothie counter(and I want to say you also can order milkshakes), the self serve 'fro yo' machines with a topping station on the left, a pastry counter, and the sushi bar in the rear, or the front if you enter through Randolph/State. And the cheesy 'Wishing you a healthy and happy day' banner sign, which hangs over both entrances.
The view on top of the escalator, looking south from the seasonal area, towards the beauty section. The circular ceiling lights are a great touch, over the escalators.
Your usual greeting card and seasonal aisle....
A few shelves devoted to As Seen on TV products, oh yeah!
The special logo Walgreens used, for aisle end displays throughout the store.
Well, that's a VERY BROAD definition for downtown Chicago, isn't it Walgreens? With this broad of a definition, they sure forgot to mention Hyde Park, Pilsen, and etc!
An example of the new look Walgreens is implementing in their stores. I had only seen this new look implemented(sans the sushi bar, self serve 'fro yo', etc. features) in 2 stores(one new store, and one renovated store), previously.
The Look Boutique counter, and a bright corner display and computer monitor display behind it.
Makeup display, and closeup of the bright corner display from the previous shot. Where is Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie character, when you want 'her'(him) to show up?
A closer closeup of this same corner display. Anti-wrinkle ingredients? Yes please!
A nail bar with pedicures, and etc. starting at $10-15. Yep, inside a Walgreens!
Nail bar closeup, even complete with a chandelier-like fixture in the middle of this room. Another sign with how high Walgreens set the bar, with this store....
'tini beauty cosmetics? Hmmm, somehow I'm not surprised I noticed more than one martini reference in this section. :)
Men's fragrances self serve cologne testing counter. Yep, that is indeed what this is, though I'll pass on trying those colognes.....
Back to the first floor again. Here's the north half of the store, with the snack section and the liquor section shown. There is a small cheese display inbetween the ends of the snack and liquor sections, that can't be seen from the far left aisle I stood at here.
Beer coolers on the left, high end liquor case, AND a cigar humidor, all next to each other. $2000 Louis XIII Cognac, anyone?
Wine bottle display, with all bottles moving left or right from the center, and computer monitor displays. This is an extremely cool display to see in person!
North entrance into the store, which goes directly to the liquor and wine section.
Across the street from the north entrance, with the Chicago Theater building on the left. A concert ended slightly before I shot this pic, hence the greater crowds on the street than usual.
Across from the south entrance into the store. The vertical sign is for Joffrey Ballet, who moved into the upper floors of this new building.
Special thanks to NBC 5 News for this video, and these 2 online articles for providing me needed info for this entry. And you can watch and read more about this flagship store from these links, as well:
http://www.nbcchicago.com/the-scene/shopping/Walgreens-To-Open-Upscale-Store-in-the-Loop-136933713.html
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120107/ISSUE01/301079971/walgreen-goes-upscale
http://www.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/9908814-417/sushi-at-walgreens-new-state-street-store-offers-urban-format.html
