Eckerd Drugs, Inc. - 1922 Specimen Stock Certificate
Inv# SE3855 Specimen Stock
New York
North Carolina
Specimen Stock printed by Security-Columbian Banknote Company.
Eckerd Corporation was an American pharmacy retail chain that was headquartered in Largo, Florida, and toward the end of its life, in Warwick, Rhode Island. At its peak, Eckerd was the second-largest pharmacy chain in the United States, with approximately 2,802 stores in 23 states as far west as Arizona. An independent chain for most of its existence, Eckerd was purchased by JCPenney in 1996. Following years of losses and failed attempts to turn around the company, the chain was divided in 2004, with 1,271 of its stores, and its mail-order business, sold to competitor CVS, and the remainder acquired by Jean Coutu Group. Jean Coutu sold the chain to Rite Aid in 2007, and its name was phased out soon thereafter.
Eckerd was founded in September 1898 (making it the oldest of the "big four" drugstore chains), by 27-year-old J. Milton Eckerd and Z. Tatom in Erie, Pennsylvania. In the company's early years, it operated at 1105 State Street in downtown Erie as the Erie Cut-Rate Medicine Store. In 1912, Eckerd and Tatom sold their original store to Eckerd's sons and moved to Wilmington, Delaware, establishing a new store. From Delaware, the chain expanded to North Carolina and later Florida. Jack Eckerd, son of the founder, was responsible for the expansion of the company when he acquired three stores in Florida in 1952. In 1961, Eckerd changed from a proprietorship to a publicly owned company. At the height of Eckerd's success, it had over 2,800 stores in more than 20 states, including 1,600 stores with Eckerd Express Photo one-hour photo labs in 19 states, and revenue of $13.1 billion (~$21.3 billion in 2022) in fiscal year 2000. Between 1968 and 1985, Eckerd owned Eckerd's Apparel and J. Byrons department stores, as well as VideoConcepts, a chain of mall-based electronics shops. J. Byrons and VideoConcepts were sold off in 1985, the latter to Tandy Corporation. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckerd_Corporation
Stock and Bond Specimens are made and usually retained by a printer as a record of the contract with a client, generally with manuscript contract notes such as the quantity printed. Specimens are sometimes produced for use by the printing company's sales team as examples of the firm’s products. These are usually marked "Specimen" and have no serial numbers.
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