Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by marshd1000 »

Walgreens has been talking to CVS. Could divested stores be split between CVS and Kroger?

http://www.investopedia.com/news/seekin ... tores-wba/
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by wnetmacman »

I saw an article yesterday that said they were having trouble selling the 1000 stores. Might be why they're talking to the enemy. If I can find the article, I'll link here later.
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by marshd1000 »

wnetmacman wrote:I saw an article yesterday that said they were having trouble selling the 1000 stores. Might be why they're talking to the enemy. If I can find the article, I'll link here later.
Here is the article I first had seen, which is the one you may be referring to:

http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/wa ... ell-stores
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by wnetmacman »

marshd1000 wrote:
wnetmacman wrote:I saw an article yesterday that said they were having trouble selling the 1000 stores. Might be why they're talking to the enemy. If I can find the article, I'll link here later.
Here is the article I first had seen, which is the one you may be referring to:

http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/wa ... ell-stores
I was just coming back to insert that. You beat me to the punch!

But;
The article states they've been talking to private equity firms. CVS only wants stores where they won't cannibalize their own.
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by marshd1000 »

I would contend that in the Northwest, there would not be many excess stores that CVS would want to turn down, given their small presence here. Of course there are a few free standing stores near Seattle and the acquired Target pharmacy business! But plenty of room to grow here!
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by Super S »

marshd1000 wrote:I would contend that in the Northwest, there would not be many excess stores that CVS would want to turn down, given their small presence here. Of course there are a few free standing stores near Seattle and the acquired Target pharmacy business! But plenty of room to grow here!
Honestly, if Walgreens and Rite Aid do end up merging, I would like to see CVS (or maybe Bartell) expand its presence so that we don't end up with a drug store monopoly in some areas.
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by storewanderer »

I wonder what happened to Albertsons buying some of these stores. I thought they were buying anything they could get their hands on. Maybe Cerberus finally cut off their money flow and said they need to get profitable.

There may also be some FTC concerns over that deal since Safeway already has a pharmacy presence in some of the markets where store divests would take place. That will also be an issue for CVS in some markets.
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:I wonder what happened to Albertsons buying some of these stores. I thought they were buying anything they could get their hands on. Maybe Cerberus finally cut off their money flow and said they need to get profitable.
I don't know if they made any plans, I think that was just speculation at best, like a rumor that Kroger would buy Cub Foods (which is unlikely).
There may also be some FTC concerns over that deal since Safeway already has a pharmacy presence in some of the markets where store divests would take place.
Certainly didn't stop CVS from taking over Target pharmacies. I don't think there was any oversight with that, even if there was a real CVS just a block away. (Honestly, it still kind of irritates me that they did that, it's the worst co-branding I've seen...if pharmacies were that bad, why not a third party operator or just closing them and gutting the space...Target could've used the floor space given how abbreviated some of their merchandise mix is)
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by SamSpade »

storewanderer wrote:Certainly didn't stop CVS from taking over Target pharmacies. I don't think there was any oversight with that, even if there was a real CVS just a block away. (Honestly, it still kind of irritates me that they did that, it's the worst co-branding I've seen...if pharmacies were that bad, why not a third party operator or just closing them and gutting the space...Target could've used the floor space given how abbreviated some of their merchandise mix is)
And, thanks to CVS' frustrating policies, one of the best things to happen to drug safety in this country is going into the trash bin. :-(
Customers are digging through their trash to reuse discontinued pill bottles
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Re: Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

Post by storewanderer »

It is hard to imagine how CVS is so successful. I was in a CVS today in Reno, NV on Lemmon Drive (former Longs, before that it was a Thrifty closed by the mid 90's). The store had half of the overhead lights shut off. The only customers were in pharmacy. There was one employee visible on front end who was walking around the store hanging ad tags. Checkout was not staffed and there was a horn on the register counter and a handwritten sign on the counter saying honk for service. It was like 3 PM and the rest of the shopping center was pretty busy. I know CVS has good stores and bad ones but this was pretty pathetic. I noticed in the back corner of this store a new "Minute Clinic" was constructed. So obviously this store is one they plan to continue operations on.

I think CVS should give up on front end almost entirely and focus on things like pharmacy, Minute Clinic, etc. Maybe have a few racks of OTC items sitting around and let the pharmacy counter handle that. Their front ends are horrible. Really poorly stocked, most locations have extremely low inventory levels, and store cleanliness and conditions vary so widely words cannot even describe it. I do find the CVS employees to be, for the most part, friendly enough. I get a lot of items there for nearly free due to the Extra Bucks and combining that program with vendor coupons, but no way would I shop there otherwise.
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