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DEERFIELD, Ill. — Dale Johnson was recruited by Walgreens while he was still in college, but as a Chicago resident since childhood, he literally grew up with the retailer. His career with the drug chain now spans more than 30 years.
“Having grown up in Chicago, I was very familiar with Walgreens,” he recalled in a recent interview. “I grew up shopping at my neighborhood Walgreens store, so I could easily understand how Walgreens stores were part of the fabric of the community.”
Although Johnson’s goal while in college was to open his own business after graduation, the Walgreens recruiter pointed out that working in store operations and leading store teams would be a great way to learn how to manage a business operation. Since he already knew and respected the company, the appeal of the potential career development opportunities made the decision to join the retailer an easy one.
Johnson joined Walgreens in January 1990, during the heyday of chain drug growth. While some competitors were expanding through voracious acquisition drives, Walgreens chose a different path, relying instead on organic growth executed on a massive scale.
“I joined the company just when Walgreens announced its rapid growth plan,” Johnson noted. “It was an exciting time: At full ramp-up, Walgreens was opening a new store every 12 hours.”
Johnson spent the next 17 years working in store operations. When the expansion drive began to slow, there was a renewed focus on making the stores more locally relevant, and Johnson’s experience in the field enabled him to make a natural transition to Walgreens’ corporate headquarters.
At that time, he pointed out, Walgreens deployed a very standardized footprint and merchandise assortment that enabled it to roll out new stores at a rapid clip. In addition, the chain was relying on national advertising, so the assortment had to support all the stores nationwide. Consequently, there was little diversity in product offerings across the fleet, which had grown to more than 5,800 drug stores by August 2007.
“Once I started working in the corporate office, I was able to work closely with the merchants,” he said. “It did not take me long to know that merchandising was going to be my second career at Walgreens.”
The greatest appeal of the merchandising function, he added, was its absolute scale.
“I had always had P&L responsibility, but the merchant P&L for a chain like Walgreens is enormous,” he explained. “There is nothing quite like the first time you see your plans come to life on a national scale, and the impact it has not just on the organization but on the communities we serve across the nation.”
His merchandising career began in 2008 as promotional merchandise manager, followed by category manager roles first in grocery and pet, then in electronics and adult beverages. After overseeing the successful rollout of alcoholic beverages to more than 6,000 stores, Johnson was promoted in 2013 to divisional merchandise manager (DMM) of regulated products, namely tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
Two years later he added household essentials to his portfolio, and in 2018 his area of responsibility expanded greatly when Johnson was named senior director and DMM for grocery, perishables, household, pet/home essentials and tobacco. In 2022 he was promoted again, to GMM of grocery, household and general merchandise, followed in November 2023 by elevation to his current role, group vice president and GMM for consumables, seasonal, general merchandise portfolios and localization.
Looking back on his experiences in operations and merchandising, Johnson observed that in operations, he enjoyed leading the teams that were closest to the customer, knowing that he was directly responsible for the customer experience. As a merchant, though, he has loved leading a team that is responsible for defining the plans that impact the front-end customers across the entire store fleet.
Johnson’s merchandising career has encompassed the revolutionary impact of digital technology, which has transformed the way Walgreens goes to market and the way it engages with its front-end and pharmacy customers. He points out that for the categories he oversees, drug stores typically serve more as a midweek fill-in shop rather than as a primary destination.
“We’re extremely convenient when you need something now,” he elaborates. “We serve as a great option for ‘need it now’ items. Customers can order ahead for a 30-minute pickup or have the order delivered to their home in as little as an hour. While the customer still seeks value and convenience, their expectation of convenience continues to evolve. The customer wants to shop the way they want, in the moment — which could be in-store, online or through one of our delivery partners. We have to manage all the categories perfectly across all the platforms at the same time.”
As a result, the merchants are now focused on getting the right item in the right store at the right price and at the right time — which is no simple task. Planograms and assortments are diversifying greatly to make sure product offerings meet the needs of the community in which a store is located.
First and foremost, Johnson noted, Walgreens remains a community pharmacy focused on delivering more joyful lives through better health. The front end of a Walgreens store helps deliver on that promise by helping offset the cost of having localized health care on the best street corners in the communities it serves across the nation.
In the course of a career that has spanned more than three decades, Johnson has benefited from the guidance and coaching of many colleagues and mentors, a number of whom are now retired. Their advice and learnings live on in the mentoring that Johnson now gives his team members in fostering their professional development.
“I often catch myself sharing the lessons I’ve learned from the folks that have helped me over the years,” he said. “One of my first mentors retired a couple of decades ago, but my team is being mentored by him today, not directly, but through me.”
Johnson leads a large merchant team responsible for several important product categories and for delivering financial results that meet their targets. His priorities remain delivering those results and developing his team as a mentor and coach.
“I believe the legacy we leave behind is the people we help,” he said. •
