Today's Smell: Walgreens

Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 28 seconds

I walked into a Walgreens the other day looking for a muffin pan (A muffin pan at Walgreens you ask? Well, it’s only logical when you plan to have muffins on an easy Saturday morning and A) you discover that for some reason your only muffin pan is not in the drawer below the stove as usual but in some closet in your wife's classroom at school and B) there's a Walgreens less than 1/6-mile from your doorstep).
Immediately when I walked into Walgreens I was permeated with that smell. You know that smell. That Walgreens smell. I can't describe it in any other way than . . . Walgreens.
No matter if the Walgreens is in Denver, Kansas City, El Paso, Omaha or Manchester, CT, or if the Walgreens is 16 years old or 16 weeks old, all Walgreens smell exactly the same (true could be said of other discount chains, Target especially).

How can this be?

Certainly over the last 20 years, Walgreens has changed the bulk of its products, or perhaps began carrying more convenience foods and makeup and less camera supplies and toys. And yet the scent is exactly the same.

I want to know specifically what I am smelling.

Maybe the smell is the product of commercially unsuccessful, bargain DVDs placed near a cash register. Maybe the smell is a cocktail of hair clips and self grooming tools placed in proximity to cigarettes and Nicoderm patches. Maybe it’s the combined scent achieved when a photo processing center butts up against a dairy case.

Some I have spoken to about this think it’s a scent Walgreens sprays in all its stores. My only hesitation with this theory is that if Walgreens was to provide a scent for its stores, it would pick something like “sea breeze” or “flowers” over “Walgreens.”

Whatever makes up the smell, to me it’s one of the most remarkable, consistent and unique scents I have ever smelled while purchasing allergy pills and Pringles.