Walgreens To Buy Duane Reade

[Alpha8472]

Walgreens is going to buy the New York City area drug store chain. I am quite surprised that they are going to keep the Duane Reade name.

http://supermarketnews.com/news/duane_deade_0217/

[krogerclerk]

On paper Duane Reade appears to be a better fit for WAGS than its last major aquisition, Happy Harry's. For now, WAGs intends to keep the DR banner and brands, though over the next two years expect some WAG brands to replace DR brands, and DR Delish to expand to chain wide. Within 3 years the stores will be WAGS in all but name, and within 7 years, the DR name will very likely have been replaced by WAGs.

WAGS found an opportunity to overtake CVS, both of whom have been playing tit for tat with new stores in areas where they compete. DR was the quickest way to pass CVS after losing Longs to CVS last year.

DR has a contemporary store design that is more upmarket that of Walgreens, CVS or Rite Aid. The DR Delish brand, coupled with grab&go convenience foods, expand the chains appeal beyond the typical drugstore shopper. Since WAGs is keeping key management, perhaps they will be better able to maintain the appeal of DR.

[Super S]

i'm not familiar with Duane Reade, but Walgreens had somewhat of an interesting takeover of Hi-School Pharmacy in southwest Washington several years ago. Only selected stores were retained and renamed Walgreens. Most of these were not standalone stores but were in strip malls. A couple transitioned into Hi-School Hardware, basically the only change was closing the pharmacy. Many of these did not last. Some were fully remodeled into the Walgreens format with drop ceilings and new lighting, where some of the newer Hi-School locations were simply repainted and retained the "open" ceiling and "warehouse" style lighting. And the original downtown Vancouver, WA location was walled off with half becoming Walgreens and the other half becoming the hardware store. The original neon "DRUGS" sign out front was kept. Hi-School Pharmacy is still operating their old format stores in many smaller towns, mostly in Oregon now.

Back to the main topic. It is interesting to see how the big chains handle the acquisition of the regional stores. Walgreens had already opened a few stores in this area and had a presence. Rite Aid on the other hand began in this area with a hodgepodge of store designs which began as PayLess, Pay 'N Save, Thrifty, and others, some which have been replaced, some that have been untouched. From what I can tell, Walgreens seems to handle the acquisitions a lot better than Rite Aid.