CVS to focus more on Healthcare

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arizonaguy
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CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by arizonaguy »

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/20 ... wrefzF9nFg

Makes sense. Their front end sales can't be anything to write home about.
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by mbz321 »

What if CVS sold off their front end operations to Target? This would certainly give Target some needed growth in their new smaller-store formats.
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: December 7th, 2018, 9:31 pm What if CVS sold off their front end operations to Target? This would certainly give Target some needed growth in their new smaller-store formats.
It has been rumored for years that CVS would outsource some of its front ends to Target. It hasn't happened yet.

Many CVS Stores are probably too far gone for Target to have much of an interest in. To get most of those up to Target specs, you'd almost have to demolish them. CVS does not seem to maintain its stores well, especially those 70's and 80's Longs Stores. Dirty, dusty, smelly. Yuck.
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: December 7th, 2018, 11:38 pm
mbz321 wrote: December 7th, 2018, 9:31 pm What if CVS sold off their front end operations to Target? This would certainly give Target some needed growth in their new smaller-store formats.
It has been rumored for years that CVS would outsource some of its front ends to Target. It hasn't happened yet.

Many CVS Stores are probably too far gone for Target to have much of an interest in. To get most of those up to Target specs, you'd almost have to demolish them. CVS does not seem to maintain its stores well, especially those 70's and 80's Longs Stores. Dirty, dusty, smelly. Yuck.
Maybe it's different on the West Coast, but here on the East coast, I would say most of their stores are under 10 years old. They have been rapidly expanding/replacing/remodeling stores here and relocating out of strip centers like clockwork as leases run out. It's hard to go 3 miles without bumping into a corner CVS.
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by CalItalian »

storewanderer wrote: December 7th, 2018, 11:38 pm
mbz321 wrote: December 7th, 2018, 9:31 pm What if CVS sold off their front end operations to Target? This would certainly give Target some needed growth in their new smaller-store formats.
It has been rumored for years that CVS would outsource some of its front ends to Target. It hasn't happened yet.

Many CVS Stores are probably too far gone for Target to have much of an interest in. To get most of those up to Target specs, you'd almost have to demolish them. CVS does not seem to maintain its stores well, especially those 70's and 80's Longs Stores. Dirty, dusty, smelly. Yuck.
All the former Longs stores in my area have been remodeled, some this year and are well maintained. Santa Monica Wilshire Blvd, Manhattan Beach Rosecrans, Westchester near LAX, former Rexall Drugs location on Beverly & La Cienega to name a few.
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by CalItalian »

mbz321 wrote: December 9th, 2018, 8:46 pm
storewanderer wrote: December 7th, 2018, 11:38 pm
mbz321 wrote: December 7th, 2018, 9:31 pm What if CVS sold off their front end operations to Target? This would certainly give Target some needed growth in their new smaller-store formats.
It has been rumored for years that CVS would outsource some of its front ends to Target. It hasn't happened yet.

Many CVS Stores are probably too far gone for Target to have much of an interest in. To get most of those up to Target specs, you'd almost have to demolish them. CVS does not seem to maintain its stores well, especially those 70's and 80's Longs Stores. Dirty, dusty, smelly. Yuck.
Maybe it's different on the West Coast, but here on the East coast, I would say most of their stores are under 10 years old. They have been rapidly expanding/replacing/remodeling stores here and relocating out of strip centers like clockwork as leases run out. It's hard to go 3 miles without bumping into a corner CVS.
In my area, you can't go much more than a mile before bumping into a CVS. Sometimes just a few blocks. Westwood Village near UCLA has two CVS's within blocks of each other (plus a CVS Pharmacy in a Target one block from a CVS). One opened as a CVS prior to CVS purchasing Sav-on and the other is a former Sav-on. In West L.A, there are two CVS locations on Sepulveda Blvd., one a former Longs in half of a former Lucky Supermarket and the other a former Sav-on within 4 blocks of each other. In Manhattan Beach, there is a CVS (former Longs) in a Bristol Farms shopping center and less than 1/2 a mile away another CVS next to a Ralphs Fresh Fare. Near LAX, there are two CVS locations (one a former Longs, the other a former Sav-on) two blocks from each other.

CVS rarely replaces stores with new locations in most urban areas of California since real estate is scarce and expensive.
The strangest one is probably Venice (L.A) where the Sav-on became a 99 Cents Only Store and the Kinney's Shoe Store then became CVS.
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by cjd »

Most of the CVS stores here are in former Eckerd Drug locations that opened in the late 1990s and replaced former strip mall stores. So most of them are in pretty good shape, a good size, and have drive thrus, etc. I did notice there are a few locations that CVS had chosen not to take over that have been converted into other kinds of stores entirely.

It doesn't surprise me if CVS want to focus on healthcare. I see little reason to go to their store for general merchandise or grocery, since prices are usually higher than any other places except for maybe stationery or office supplies. And when I've gone at the end of summer looking for a clearance sale, none of the items I wanted were on sale yet were overpriced. Walgreen have better prices typically and better sales on these things.

Since CVS is right in front of Publix parking lot, see little reason to go in CVS unless I used them for my pharmacy, yet I could easily do that at Publix too and make one less stop.
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by BillyGr »

Interesting that they recently have been renovating (to the point of having about half the aisles missing at any given time) one of the few stores here that is still in a strip plaza.

No idea why they haven't moved it to a newer freestanding location. This store started as Brooks, which became Revco before being taken over by CVS, so it's been around for quite a while.
They built a new location about 3-4 miles away from it a couple years back, in an area of that town where retail has been developing more recently, while this existing store is in an older area. However it must still do well enough that they are doing the remodel on this one now.
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by architect »

cjd wrote: December 10th, 2018, 5:13 pm Most of the CVS stores here are in former Eckerd Drug locations that opened in the late 1990s and replaced former strip mall stores. So most of them are in pretty good shape, a good size, and have drive thrus, etc. I did notice there are a few locations that CVS had chosen not to take over that have been converted into other kinds of stores entirely.

It doesn't surprise me if CVS want to focus on healthcare. I see little reason to go to their store for general merchandise or grocery, since prices are usually higher than any other places except for maybe stationery or office supplies. And when I've gone at the end of summer looking for a clearance sale, none of the items I wanted were on sale yet were overpriced. Walgreen have better prices typically and better sales on these things.

Since CVS is right in front of Publix parking lot, see little reason to go in CVS unless I used them for my pharmacy, yet I could easily do that at Publix too and make one less stop.
This is the exact same scenario in Texas, where most CVS stores are either 90's Eckerd stores or locations built by CVS in the late 90's or since. Outside of a few locations in historic/dense areas (such as a non-pharmacy location on the Riverwalk in San Antonio), almost all of their stores around the state have been relocated from old strip mall spaces and are generally in good condition. However, despite this, the stores tend to see little traffic in their front ends due to pricing (most people simply elect to go to a grocer or discount store instead, which are generally plentiful and far more competitive down here).
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Re: CVS to focus more on Healthcare

Post by cjd »

architect wrote: December 11th, 2018, 4:21 pm
This is the exact same scenario in Texas, where most CVS stores are either 90's Eckerd stores or locations built by CVS in the late 90's or since. Outside of a few locations in historic/dense areas (such as a non-pharmacy location on the Riverwalk in San Antonio), almost all of their stores around the state have been relocated from old strip mall spaces and are generally in good condition. However, despite this, the stores tend to see little traffic in their front ends due to pricing (most people simply elect to go to a grocer or discount store instead, which are generally plentiful and far more competitive down here).
I forgot about the built-as-CVS stores. There's one of those in the town I lived in as a young child and it's the only one I've seen that they built. That town once had an older Eckerd in a strip mall from the early 70s but it had closed well before the CVS buyout. I want to say probably during the mid to late 1990s because we moved in 95 and it was open then.

CVS works on a lower volume I'm told and it makes sense as I usually see only one cashier in the store here and no employees stocking. Whereas Walgreens will usually have a few people around the store stocking and someone in the photo department.

I don't know of any remaining strip mall CVS stores here. Some of them were left relatively still in-tact as is when tenants moved into them such as Bealls Outlet or Pet Supermarket. While others were used for expansion of stores like Publix and have since been demolished entirely.
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