What Does CVS Stand For? A Company History

If you live in the United States, there’s a good chance you’ve shopped at a CVS store. But have you ever wondered what CVS stands for? Here’s a brief history of the company that started out as a scrappy discount health and beauty products store and is now a healthcare company with over $320 billion in revenue and $4.2 billion in net profit in 2022.

What does the acronym CVS stand for?

The acronym CVS stands for Consumer Value Stores.

How did CVS get its name?

The first Consumer Value Stores (CVS) store started in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1963. Ralph Hoagland and the Goldstein brothers Sidney and Stanley started the company as an offshoot of their business Mark Steven, Inc., which helped retailers manage their health and beauty lines. CVS’s first stores were a chain of discount health and beauty stores. Pharmacies were added later on as a convenience to consumers. The company saw rapid growth and success in the 1980s and 1990s and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1996.

What are Consumer Value Stores, CVS Caremark Corporation, and CVS Health?

CVS Caremark Corporation is a prescription pharmacy benefits management company. It is a subsidiary of CVS Health Corporation, which also owns a retail pharmacy chain called CVS Pharmacy.

Some landmarks in the company’s history include:

In 1969, CVS was bought by the Melville Corporation, which managed a number of retail businesses.
By the 1970s, CVS had around 100 stores, with the opening locations mainly in the northeast.
CVS became an independent company in 1996, with Stanley Goldstein as the first chairman.
The CVS ExtraCare loyalty program was launched in 2001, and 30 million people enrolled in it in the first year.
In 2004, CVS announced it was acquiring Eckerd Health Services and Eckerd Stores, a pharmacy business of JCPenney. This expanded the company’s presence in Florida, Texas, and the south.
In 2007, a merger took place between Caremark Rx, Inc., and CVS Corporation, leading to the birth of CVS Caremark Corporation, with Tom Ryan as president and CEO and Edwin Crawford as chairman of the board.
In 2015, CVS announced it would acquire Omnicare, a provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities.
More recently, in 2017, CVS acquired the health insurance provider Aetna for $69 billion under the leadership of Larry Merlo.

Fun Facts about Consumer Value Store (CVS)

CVS has its headquarters in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
As of 2021, CVS Health employed 300,000 people.
The current CEO is Karen S. Lynch.
From a handful of opening locations in Massachusetts, CVS has grown to over 9,600 pharmacies across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Brazil.
1 in 4 Americans has a CVS ExtraCare card.
Over three-fourths of the US population lives within 5 miles of a CVS Pharmacy.
To discourage smoking, CVS stopped selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in all its stores in 2014.
The company believes in supporting communities and employees. It sponsors scholarships for children of employees and those wanting to enter the medical field, such as pharmacists and doctors.
All CVS Health brand products are cruelty-free and are not tested on animals.
5 million customers visit CVS stores every day, giving CVS a market share of 40% in prescription drugs.
In 2023, CVS will open Beauty 360, a high-end beauty outlet that will feature 32 brands or lines. The aim is to expand beyond pharmacy departments and tap into the growing market for cosmetics and skin care products, ultimately as a direct competition to Sephora.