Approximately 1,200 Walgreens pharmacies will close nationwide

Murrmurr

Murrmurr

SF VIP
Location
Sacramento, California
Walgreens Pharmacy's CEO says the closures are due slumping consumer buying in the pharmacy's retail part of the pharmacy.
I don't buy that.

I'm pretty sure it's mainly due to slumping investor dividends, and it's probably a real drag keeping up with the FDA's increasing demand for documentation and redundant documentation of documents as they try to control the controlled substances they control.

This effects me, personally, because I'm gonna have to continue doing business with a business I absolutely despise: CVS Pharmacy...the FDA's left hand of destiny. Specifically, "Destination Effed".
 

In this area much of the pressure is due to shoplifting and competition from grocery store pharmacies, online pharmacies, etc…

My local Walgreens has many products in locked cases where you have to ring and wait for someone to come and open the case. I don’t bother, I just go to another store.

I haven’t heard if ours is one of the ones on the list to close.
 
Aunt Bea said:
In this area much of the pressure is due to shoplifting and competition from grocery store pharmacies, online pharmacies, etc…

My local Walgreens has many products in locked cases where you have to ring and wait for someone to come and open the case. I don’t bother, I just go to another store.

I haven’t heard if ours is one of the ones on the list to close.
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The cost of all those cases and locks (and people walking away from them) no doubt cut pretty dearly into investor dividends and overall profits.

CVS will soon have the monopoly. At least in Calif, it's illegal for independently owned pharmacies to dispense controlled substances. And the list is long.
 

Walgreens used to be cheaper before they went to one of the membership/club cards. Now one needs a mortgage to buy a couple bottles of vitamins.

Throw in crime, work at home, dwindling customer base and high prices this was an eventuality. Target and Walmart not helping either. I've used the local pharmacy as much as possible. It's pretty bad when the local single owned pharmacy can not only compete with drug and otc prices some even have a dollar type section.
 
Within a 15 minute drive, there are 8 pharmacies near me. There are two CVS pharmacies only two miles apart. Do I need all those pharms? No. It's an attempt to flood the area with your branches to starve out the competition. And when your competition dies, you consolidate your stores. Like Walmart did to Kmart. Walgreens instead of starving out the competition, over saturated the area with unprofitable stores.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Within a 15 minute drive, there are 8 pharmacies near me. There are two CVS pharmacies only two miles apart. Do I need all those pharms? No. It's an attempt to flood the area with your branches to starve out the competition. And when your competition dies, you consolidate your stores. Like Walmart did to Kmart. Walgreens instead of starving out the competition, over saturated the area with unprofitable stores.
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Exactly. Walgreens' market was urban areas where people opted for convenience over lowest price. When I worked in downtown San Francisco in the 1990's, you literally could not go more than 3 blocks in any direction without encountering a Walgreens.

The pandemic/lockdown and subsequent Work From Home (WFH) killed its profits. The SFBA still has the highest WFH percentages in the US. Most of Walgreens' closures in NorCA are due to the empty downtown of SF.

People should also remember that Rite-Aid entered bankruptcy and in fact, just emerged from it. Rite Aid closed more than 520 stores since filing for bankruptcy, including all of its Michigan stores and all but four in Ohio. Not only did they struggle vs CVS and Walgreens, but Amazon has decimated the entire pharmacy market.

Of course, it didn't help that Rite-Aid was sued for filling questionable prescriptions for opiods (highly addictive painkillers)!
 
Walgreens bought Rite-Aid, then squashed them. I now use a tiny local pharmacy that sells very little OTC drugs and no random stuff, not even gum.
 
I used to get most of my vaccinations at a local Walgreens, which had plenty of parking, was seldom busy, had a spacious pharmacy waiting area with seating, and a private vaccination room. Then they closed the only Walgreens in my area, and I was forced to go to a CVS located within a Target store. The Target is always busy, and the vaccines are given by CVS from a chair pulled to the pharmacy counter in an open area with foot traffic passing through. The Walmart pharmacy operates the same way. I sure do miss my Walgreens, where I went for years! 😩
 
I use our nearby CVS almost exclusively. Never a hitch in quite a few years. The biggest benefit, at my age, is the drive-thru pick-up for our prescriptions. Always courteous and helpful over the phone (after the initial BS to establish who you are). They also provide a separate room for vaccine shots.

l do have a good insurance plan but I also don't spend my time BSing about prices. I just want the prescription and let me be on my way, never having to put my foot in the door.
 
People are buying things online... the real markup is the other items in the pharmacy ....
so if a person goes for medications a shot or two but NEVER step in there otherwise.
I drive by a couple of these places and they never seem busy .... when I tried shopping in a few .... they always had one item of each thing on shelf. If i needed two forget about it....
I am surprised honestly that they lasted this long.
 
The "little guy" drugstore here got so much business when the 3 nearby Rite-Aids closed that they hired two more techs. Maybe that means they'll hang on for a while until the gentrifiers force them out.

Some customers went to the Walgreens when their prescriptions moved that automatically, but if they close the little guy will probably get even more business.
 

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