(NEXSTAR) – In all likelihood, very few of us have pondered what “CVS” actually stands for. As long as we can buy laundry detergent, Twix, and a tube of topical rash cream in the same place, we’re fairly content.
But now that the question is out there, what exactly does CVS stand for?
CVS, the country’s largest pharmacy chain, was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1963. But visitors to the Lowell shop may have noticed signage welcoming them to the “Consumer Value Store” — the first of more than a dozen to open in the following year.
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Even the earliest locations, however, were embracing the CVS acronym. By 1964, the company developed a shield logo with the letters “CVS” in the center (and “Consumer Value Stores” spelled out above, alongside or underneath). In fact, much of the stores’ signage throughout the ‘60s featured the acronym, according to a representative for CVS.
The company was sold in 1969 to the Melville Corporation, a retail holding company which began as a chain of shoe stores before acquiring brands such as Marshalls, K.B. Toys and Linens n’ Things among dozens of others between the 1920s and the 1990s. But even by Melville’s 1969 acquisition of CVS, the chain was already primarily known as CVS rather than Consumer Value Stores, though the latter was still used for official purposes in Melville’s annual reports “at least through 1975,” a CVS spokesperson confirmed.
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CVS shoppers likely haven’t seen “Consumer Value Stores” in any commercials or consumer-facing materials since. The shortened “CVS,” too, was pretty much cemented as the company’s official name in 1996, after the Melville Corporation sold off all its holdings — apart from CVS — and reorganized as the CVS Corporation (and later, the CVS Caremark Corporation).
“We very rarely spell out ‘Consumer Value Stores’ these days — really only in the historical context,” a spokesperson for CVS said.
Within the past decade, CVS has made only a few additional tweaks to its brand identity. In 2014, around the time that CVS outlets discontinued the sale of cigarettes, the company’s corporate name was changed to CVS Health Corporation, and CVS began using its current heart logo.
Most customers, of course, probably failed to notice these changes during our CVS trips for detergents, candy or rash ointment. After all, we’re fairly content if our clothes are clean, our Twix cravings are satiated, and the swelling keeps subsiding.
CVS is one of the biggest names in both retail and pharmacy. Whenever you walk into, or drive by, one of the stores, you probably don’t stop to wonder what the three big red letters stand for; most people are content to just call it CVS. But, like a lot of other product and store names, CVS is an acronym, and now we know what it stands for. Here are the (often hilarious!) meanings of some acronyms you didn’t know were acronyms.
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CVS was founded in 1963 by Stanley Goldstein, Sidney Goldstein, and Ralph Hoagland. They called it “Consumer Value Stores.” The original store logo from 1964 broadcasted both the acronym and the full words. However, over time, the three letters “CVS” became so iconic that people knew what they meant—a one-stop destination for health and beauty products, not to mention one of America's most trusted brands—without actually knowing what they meant. So, the famous "CVS/pharmacy" logo really means "this store is both a Consumer Value Store and a pharmacy." But wait, that might not be the only answer! According to Encyclopedia.com, Tom Ryan, one of CVS's past CEOs, interpreted the three letters differently. Ryan, who was CEO from 1998 until 2011, pledged that he was running the company according to three "benchmarks"—Convenience, Value, and Service. He claimed that this, too, could be a possible interpretation of the acronym. Learn the meaning of another well-known company's little-known acronym: H&M. So, interestingly, the acronym has evolved, just like the CVS brand itself. Basically, it's a Consumer Value Store that prides itself on Convenience, Value, and Service—but we don't think CVSCVS has quite the same ring to it. Don't miss these 17 other company names that have secret meanings.