Walgreens Plans Expansion in City of Chicago; Would Provide 600 New Jobs

Walgreens (NYSE:

) today unveiled its “Chicago Hometown Investment Initiative,” a plan to provide an estimated 600 new jobs in the city over the next two years and quadruple its number of food oasis stores. Roughly half of the jobs are expected to result from expansion of Walgreens downtown office space for E-commerce, information technology and related areas. Approximately 300 other new jobs in the city are planned to be created by new store openings and remodeling of many of Walgreens 142 Chicago drugstores, including the planned expansion of Walgreens 11 food oasis stores in the city to nearly 50 over the next two years. Walgreens food oasis locations offer a broader selection of healthy foods to address the food desert issue facing many communities.