Our Town: Embracing Walgreen's Our Town: Embracing Walgreen's (August 22, 2001)

by Daryl Savage First a few facts. Walgreen's in Midtown is a done deal, a signed contract, a fait accompli.

The hopes of some Palo Altans are permanently dashed for a Trader Joe's or a deli to occupy the site of the former Co-op Market on Middlefield Road. So no more whining and moaning, Walgreen's is here to stay.

I, for one, am prepared to not only accept the new Walgreen's (the third in Palo Alto), but embrace it. Granted, my feelings may make me unpopular in Midtown, but I have fond memories of Walgreen's as a child and I'm not about to give them up. It was as much a part of my growing up in the Midwest as the sizzling sidewalks of summer and slippery sidewalks of winter. Walgreen's and I were both created on Chicago's south side.

Charles Walgreen started his business in 1901. I came along decades later when Walgreen's pretty much dotted the south side and had already expanded into other states. My memories are vivid, sitting on a stool of Walgreen's snack bar, twirling around while eating a patty melt and sipping a chocolate milk shake (which, by the way, Walgreen's claims to have invented).

Sadly, the snack bar, which lasted into the 1980s, is now gone in all of Walgreen's stores without a prayer of returning. The Walgreen's on 71st and Jeffrey was one of the few stores in the city that had air-conditioning, offering cool relief on muggy hot days. It was a Sunday adventure with my family that became a weekly routine for us.

We'd pile into our Ford Fairlane and make the two-mile trip. It now seems hard to believe that going to Walgreen's was an event, but life was simpler then. There was also a certain feeling, a good feeling, and a certain smell, a distinct smell, associated with walking into Walgreen's as a child. It was one of the few establishments that my parents allowed my brother and I to enter by ourselves. It was a safe place. We would race through the aisles with a nickel in our hands to buy Pixie Sticks and Candy Dots.

This was the 1950s, still an age of innocence on Chicago's South Side. I asked my brother, now a doctor whose Chicago office is directly across the street from a Walgreen's, if he remembers the early days. They are as fixed in his memory as they are mine. Walgreen's was more than a store for us South-Siders. It was an icon. Still is, he said.

I do have concerns that Longs Drugs, a Palo Alto fixture just a block away on Middlefield Road, may not survive. It is the David against the Goliath of drug store chains. But the Walgreen's people say their store appeals to a "different clientele" and has different merchandise than Longs and that competition is healthy. I question the competition part but am prepared to divide my shopping between the two stores.

Walgreen's is also big on community service. Last year, the company contributed millions of dollars to various charities, with $250,000 to the treatment and cure of HIV/AIDS alone. Sensing a less-than-welcome response to a third Walgreen's in Palo Alto, the company decided to hire a well-respected local architect to develop the plans for its Midtown location. John Northway of Stoecker and Northway designed the exterior of the building to complement the character of the neighborhood. Northway said he has taken considerable care to accommodate the concerns of Walgreen's Midtown neighbors and has met with them regarding the design.

Midtown Residents Association president Annette Ashton is pleased with Northway's plans for Walgreen's and said the association will support all of the retail stores in the shopping center. One of the association's goals, said Ashton, is to have "pedestrian-friendly retail variety shops."

Seems to me Walgreen's fits right in. Daryl Savage is a staff writer at the Weekly. E-mail her at dsavage@paweekly.com.