‘Chemists to the Nation’: House magazines, locality and health at Boots The Chemists 1919–1939

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of company magazines at Boots The Chemists between 1919–1939. Informed by Marchand’s model of the creation of a ‘corporate soul’ andWeick’s typology of organizational ‘sensemaking’, the article examines how The Bee, the house journal disseminated to retail employees, alluded to the contribution made by Boots as ‘Chemists to the Nation’ to the health and welfare of its customers and to the towns in which branches were situated. Arguing that company magazines could be used to demonstrate corporate soul to employees as much as to the consumer, the article shows how The Bee was used to ‘enact’ scenarios that highlighted the valuable role that the company perceived that they performed in the local community.