It started off as just a typical day for Walgreens founder, Charles R. Walgreen Sr., who stood over a bathroom sink shaving his face as part of his regular morning routine. But it wasn’t just any day, it was Oct. 9—his birthday—and the year was around 1920. Unable to wait any longer, his children, Chuck and Ruth, suddenly burst through the door with an unexpected present: a perky-eared, toy Boston bulldog.
He greeted the black and white, velvet-fur puppy cautiously at first, then more enthusiastically once he got past the shock. “What shall we name him?” they pressed him. With a can of Peau-Doux shaving cream still within eyeshot—one of the earliest Walgreens brands of personal care items—Walgreen Sr. was inspired to name the dog, you guessed it, Peau-Doux. French for “soft skin,” there was no other name as fitting.
Peau-Doux the dog went on to become Walgreen Sr.’s constant companion and would often spend the day in his lap at the Bowen Avenue office in Chicago, the corporate headquarters at the time.
And soon the dog earned more than just a space in his owner’s heart—it became the face of the Walgreens brand itself. Originally the brand’s packaging featured a silhouetted man with a white collar, but Walgreen decided to update the design to feature the head of Peau-Doux the dog. More changes to the brand came later when it expanded to include items such as golf balls, playing cards and rubber goods, which prompted another update in 1930. Charles “Chuck” Walgreen Jr. (yes, the same young boy who barged in with the dog) worked as a sundries buyer at the company at the time, and admitted it was “a rather foolish name to give to a golf ball.” And so, the brand’s spelling changed to Po-Do.
“It was amazing the number of products that could be developed with our own name and to our own specifications,” said Chuck, about the Walgreens Po-Do brand. “The No. 1 thing with all of them was quality. They had to be as good as, or better than, anything on the market or we wouldn’t put our name on them.”
Value has been a top priority for the Walgreen family since Day 1, and even today, Walgreens brand products provide our customers with better value options compared to leading national brands. Although Po-Do golf balls were discontinued in 1965, the company’s love of Walgreens brand products (and pets!) remains strong. In fact, Walgreens has its own pet product line, Pet Shoppe, which is one of several in its portfolio of 11 owned brands including Walgreens brand, Nice! and others that offer high-quality products at great value, backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
See how our earliest Walgreens brand of health and wellness products, Peau-Doux, transformed into a tribute to Charles R. Walgreen Sr.'s beloved bulldog by the same name.
