•May 16, 2018•

By Christopher Placek

A pharmacist at Walgreens for 37 years, Joel Karlinsky might often see people on their worst days, coming to him for antidotes to their health maladies.

But in providing a helping hand and friendly smile, Karlinsky formed a bond with his customers. One regular appreciated the service so much that he had an engraved Montblanc pen made for Karlinsky with the pharmacist’s name on it.

“I tried to go out of my way to be nice to them,” said Karlinsky, now retired, who for a time managed the pharmacy at a Walgreens near the company’s Deerfield headquarters. “Customer service goes a long way. Everybody fills the same prescriptions, but if you’re providing them with a friendly, knowledgeable individual, that gives them a level of service above and beyond.”

That pharmacist’s personalized touch mirrors the 117-year-old company’s origin story, when founder Charles R. Walgreen Sr. and colleague Arthur C. Thorsen personally greeted each customer who came to the door of their modest 20-by-50-foot pharmacy on Chicago’s South Side.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.