Walgreens aims to close about 200 US stores

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

Walgreens plans to close about 200 U.S. stores as the nation's largest drugstore chain expands on a $1 billion cost-reduction plan it announced last August.

The Deerfield, Illinois, company says it also will reorganize its corporate operations and streamline its information technology and other functions. It expects the moves to add $500 million to its estimated cost savings from its three-year plan.

The store closings amount to about 2 percent of the 8,232 drugstores it runs in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Late last year, Walgreens completed a nearly $16 billion deal to purchase the remaining stake of European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots that it didn't already own. The company was renamed Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150409/us-walgreens-store-closings-f541d1049f.html

[Sherman A1]

1. This sounds about in line with their original planning

IIRC: Those stores were 14, 500 square feet cookie cutter designs that were only expected to last about 20 years to service the baby boom generation's need for prescriptions and over the counter medications. I am sure that the use of mail order pharmacies has contributed to this move as well.

[cstanleytech]

5. That or they are stores where the lease is due to expire soon and rather than renew it

they are choosing to just close the stores.

[yeoman6987]

16. You mean I might have a drive another block to hit the next one?

Lol. A very little sarcastic.

[EL34x4]

20. That's no joke.

Two Walgreens and a CVS within a ten minute drive from my home. And I'm out in the sticks. I'm sure this isn't unusual.

As much as I hate to see any business close, there's no shortage of Walgreens.

[NikolaC]

23. Same Here

There were two Walgreens and a CVS within a half mile of one another where we used to live. They built one Walgreens across the street from the CVS then, for some unknown reason, built another one not even a half a mile up the road. Too many in that one small area.

[brooklynite]

2. IN my neighborhood, there's a block with a pharmacy on each corner...

...I'd say the market is over-saturated.

[LittleGirl]

8. that was my first thought

CVS and Walgreen right across the street from each other. Although, Walgreens was always cheaper than CVS in my opinion. And frankly, they built a bunch of brand new stores across from those CVS and how much will they lose because of that?

[brooklynite]

13. Add to that, all the competing convenience stores and sushi bars...

(your pharmacy doesn't have a sushi bar? Mine does...)

[shenmue]

3. People where I live aren't going to like that

[underpants]

4. TuuWuu

Any regular Walgreens customer recognizes the distinctive reading by the guy on the phone tree.

[Sunlei]

6. wish they would upgrade their 'nice' store brand foods. those over=processed cheap breads & cereals

are not healthy for people.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. I know someone who was hooked on their maple cookies....

He was buying them four boxes at a time.

[DonCoquixote]

17. and they are often

the only foods people can afford, I say this because walgreens is often the de facto supermarket in poor neighborhoods.

[Sunlei]

21. you are right. Along with the corner stores, these are the only groceries within walking distance.

Usually lower prices, more selection then the corner stores.

[EL34x4]

22. Big Flats Beer

From time to time, I'll pick up a couple sixers of their branded beer. At $2.99 a six-pack, it's surprisingly not bad stuff!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. Oh sure, because the #1 way to increase profits is to have fewer customers.

[2banon]

9. Strange timing. they just opened up a third store on our city island,

We now have 3 Walgreens on the island city of Alameda. all three are fairly busy, so I don't expect any of these to close, but I didn't understand why they opened up the third one, and corporate decisions to "reorganize" while expanding at the same time often seems illogical.

[cstanleytech]

25. There can be a number of reasons why a company could decide to close

a store yet still be building new ones in other areas like for example if they are leasing the land they might not like the terms for a renewal of the lease or the store is not making a profit in that location.

[katmondoo]

11. I never go to Walgreen's or CVS

In Florida we have Publix supermarkets that have pharmacies. It is easier to do your food shopping and get your prescriptions at the same place. Publix gives free anti-bionics and free blood pressure medications. There are still many Walgreen's and CVS stores but always a pain to get to one.

[Ed Suspicious]

12. "free anti-bionics" - That gives Lee Majors a sad.

It's amazing what 6 million bucks used to buy.

[Frank Cannon]

18. Never seen that pic before.

Steve Austin wearing a running suit, with EKG telemetry transmitters on, and either climbing into or out of the cockpit of an HL-10 lifting body.

That is so cool.

[Ed Suspicious]

30. I didn't know what an HL-10 was. Weird vehicle.

[Frank Cannon]

31. Hey, that project helped give us the space shuttle.

The whole lifting body program was amazing, if you read about it. Very innovative, and ridiculously dangerous. That crash you saw at the beginning of every episode of the Six Million Dollar Man was real.

[csziggy]

29. I much prefer getting my prescriptions at Publix

But I have one that costs $240+ at Publix and only $29.95 at CVS. The previous time I refilled it, it was $40 at Publix but it went up $200 in between

So I checked prices at GoodRx.com and with a coupon it was so much cheaper at CVS I transferred it there. Before I request a refill next time, I'll check prices through GoodRx.com again and go to where ever I can get it cheapest.

All the rest of the prescriptions my husband and I get add up to less than $20 altogether without a discount from the insurance or a coupon. All of those we get through Publix.

[randome]

14. Expanding on a reduction plan? Oh, the pain of business writing. The pain.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[LeftinOH]

15. No problem - the CVS one block away, or the Walgreens

three blocks away, or the Rite-Aid four blocks away, or the supermarket pharmacy next door will pick up the slack.

[polynomial]

19. The sweet part of some of the new age deals

It’s my opinion many of these franchises buy into a real-estate market.

They may even run a local business at a loss as long as the long term growth in property values is there, the sweet part of some of the new age deals is that so called exemption from paying local property taxes, or utility maintenance as sewer or water, street cleaning.

It is a sweet deal to project out on the Gaussian curve before a payout, to sell out and leave the community blaming the economy.

All the while with local tax breaks, the infrastructure starts to fall into a depreciated model that is an accounting inequity. In my opinion, that style of accounting is a political criminal fraud which needs to be enforced or banished. This type of accounting or business plan flourished the half past century.

Now look at the litter, joblessness, blight, with the constant area transformation Initiatives in many cities that try to create a decline in crime, or elimination of it all because of a selfish greed and the lack of academic support that should have easily identified this horrible accounting practice.

Think about it, that type of business community plan that gives the precious space and tax breaks to corporate entities a total field day in public domain laws or advantages.

[mnhtnbb]

24. We used to have a full service filling station on the corner down the street from us.

Guess who bought it? Yup. Walgreens. Tore down a real service station
so they could put up another one in a zillion drug stores. I used the service
station every year for car inspections, change light bulbs that went out (turn signals, brake lights)
fix tires...you name it. It was a real service to the community.

I refuse to go in the Walgreens. Drive by it every time to go to another drug store.

[angryvet]

26. They just opened two stores

in our town...not even 3 miles from the other. Wonder which one will be closed?

[Hoyt]

27. It seems like there is a Walgreens or CVS (or both) on every corner where I live.

I'm surprised they've kept them open this long, or opened that many to start with.

[2banon]

28. sort of makes me curious if churches own them..

you know how they love getting their foothold on every street corner possible, and now apparently they're into strip malls.