WALGREEN: A SECOND-MILE MAN
Second-mile people always excel. Around 1920 a pharmacist bought a drug store on the south side of Chicago. Soon, he was bored with his job and began to dream how he could make it more exciting. It was during a time when people were just beginning to call in their orders using a telephone, so this man decided to challenge himself to make his job more interesting. He decided to see how quickly he could deliver a telephone order. When someone called in, he repeated the order aloud, including the name and address. As he spoke with the caller, his assistant filled the order and a driver left immediately to deliver it. The druggist kept the customer on the phone chatting until the order arrived at the caller’s home.
Most of the customers lived nearby, of course, but this kind of prompt service was revolutionary, and word soon spread. It became the busiest pharmacy in Chicago. He bought other stores and added new ideas like a soda fountain. Within a few years, he had a chain of stores. Can you guess his name? He was Charles Walgreen. Today, there are over 5,000 Walgreens because of a man who decided to go the second mile.
(From a sermon by David Dykes, How to Take Your Job and Love It, 8/5/2010)