CVS Pharmacy was originally named what?

CVS Pharmacy was originally named Consumer Value Stores.

The first Consumer Value Store was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1963 by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and their partner Ralph Hoagland. The early business focused on health and beauty products rather than operating as the pharmacy chain most customers recognize today.

The initials CVS were first used in 1964, when the company had 17 locations. Pharmacy departments arrived in 1967, with the first stores containing them opening in Warwick and Cumberland, Rhode Island. That pharmacy expansion helped shape the company’s later identity.

CVS was acquired by Melville Corporation in 1969. The parent company later changed its own name from Melville Corporation to CVS Corporation in 1996, and CVS Pharmacy is now a subsidiary of CVS Health. The alternatives in this question are invented expansions; “CVS” is the abbreviation of the original name, not “Customer Value Shops” or a similar phrase.