For years, Walgreens has been the place where you could grab some milk, chips or soda while picking up a prescription but now the drugstore chain wants to be more than an afterthought in the fresh food market.

At its annual meeting yesterday in Chicago, CEO Greg Wasson told shareholders about the the company’s strategy to evolve from a “retail drugstore to a retail health and daily living store.”

Walgreens began testing this expanded format last summer in a handful of stores and now says it will be rolling it out, in various iterations, nationwide.

From ChicagoBreakingNews.com:

The fresh foods go beyond convenience items that Walgreens has carried for years, such as milk and orange juice. The test stores offer more than 750 new products, including fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen meat and fish, pasta, rice, beans, eggs and whole-grain cereals.

Wasson told reporters that how much fresh food each Walgreens offers will vary by store and location. He explained that the company is targeting around 300-500, so-called “food deserts,” where grocery stores are scarce.

Walgreens to expand fresh food offerings at stores [ChicagoBreakingNews.com]

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