Boots is an iconic British brand that no one really wants
Walgreens Boots Alliance cannot find a buyer for the pharmacist
Boots is a staple of the British high street. The retailer-cum-pharmacist is ubiquitous and trusted. Its cursive logo is immune to the fads of corporate design. Tracing its origins to a single herbal-remedies shop that opened in Nottingham in 1849, Boots has grown to employ a corps of more than 51,000 workers and reckons that 85% of the British population is within ten minutes’ drive of one of its shops. But ubiquity matters less in a world of online shopping, and as events of recent weeks have shown, its allure to potential buyers has dwindled.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Boots off”
Britain July 2nd 2022
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