History
Andrew Cunningham opened the first Cunningham drug store in Detroit in October 1889.[1] In 1931, the 50-store Economical Drug chain, also based in Detroit, consolidated with Cunningham, which at the time had thirteen stores.[1][2] Economical Drug owner Nate Shapero also assumed control of the Cunningham chain. Cunningham announced a merger with Marshall Drug Co. of Cleveland, Ohio in 1940.[3][4]
Between 1958 and 1959, the chain announced mergers with two other chains: Broward Drug of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Kinsel Drug Co., also of Detroit.[5][6] Following the merger, Cunningham became the largest drugstore chain in Michigan, and had locations in several other states.[1] An effort was made by the United States Department of Justice to dissolve the Kinsel merger, citing that it was in violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act.[7] The dissolution was canceled in 1963.[8]
An acquisition of Whelan Drug in Florida added fourteen more Cunningham locations to that state in 1964.[9] The chain later sold 28 Florida stores to Gray Drug of Ohio.[10][11]
Cunningham's also had some small drug stores branded as Schettler's in major hotels, such as the Sheraton-Cadillac in Detroit, and at high-end retail, such as at Somerset Mall in Troy, Michigan.[12] In the 1960s, a small number of Cunningham's were re-branded as Dot Discount, an experiment which did not expand further, but which lasted a couple decades, some years after all Cunningham's had closed in the Detroit area.
The chain sold off twenty-eight of its Michigan stores in 1982 to a private company, which re-branded them as Apex Drug.[13] Three years later, most of the Apex locations were sold to Perry Drug Stores, another chain based in the Detroit metropolitan area.[14]
The remaining Cunningham stores were gradually sold off or shuttered; by late 1991, the last five in operation, all in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area, were sold to Walgreens.[15]