Walgreens Will No Longer Accept American Express Cards Effective Jan. 14

DEERFIELD, IL- Walgreens, the country’s ninth-largest retailer, will no longer accept American Express cards nationwide, effective Jan. 14, 2005.

Walgreens made the decision because of higher service fees on each American Express transaction compared to Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Although American Express hasn’t raised its rates since Walgreens began accepting the card chainwide in 1996, Walgreens is not seeing significantly larger purchases from American Express cardholders that might offset the high fees.

The decision affects all Walgreens drugstores nationwide, along with Walgreens.com, Walgreens Mail Service, Walgreens Home Care and Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy.

American Express cards account for only a small fraction of Walgreens total credit card transactions. By announcing its decision today, Walgreens is providing its American Express card customers a month’s notice before it no longer accepts the cards.

Walgreens will continue to accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards at all locations.

Walgreen Co. is the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2004 sales of $37.5 billion. The company operates 4,681 stores in 44 states and Puerto Rico, and plans to open about 450 new stores nationwide in fiscal 2005. Walgreens also provides additional services to pharmacy patients and prescription drug plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives (a pharmacy benefits manager), Walgreens Mail Service, Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy and Walgreens Home Care.