ABSTRACT
In 1961, Don Guild owned a small drugstore in southern California with his dad; soon, they opened a second, larger store. From that point on, Don opened a new store every year or so until he eventually reached thirteen stores. In 1969, he joined Fred Chaney’s TEC group to work with other CEOs and small business owners who were trying to build their businesses. Over the years, Don faced a constant struggle: he was trained as a pharmacist but he hated being a pharmacist. By 1982, when CVS started opening stores in Southern California, Don began to wonder if this could be his shot at getting out of the pharmacy business once and for all. A year later, CVS contacted Don about buying his thirteen drugstores. Soon after, Thrifty Drug called him because it also wanted to expand into the region. Now he had two companies vying to buy his small chain. Both companies were seeking to open many stores in a short period of time and use their newly acquired sales and customer base to advertise aggressively and achieve market dominance. Don consulted his group about how to go about selling his stores.
