Walgreens To Acquire Kmart Prescriptions

[Alpha8472]

http://supermarketnews.com/latest-news/ ... scriptions

Walgreens announced it will acquire the prescription files and inventory from 33 Kmart pharmacies in 16 states.

What this means is that many Kmart stores are near death. They are selling their Kmart stockpiles of drugs and their customer prescription files.

Pharmacies are the most profitable part of a store. The pharmacies make a ton of money off of selling medications. The only reason to get rid of this profitable part of the store means that many Kmart stores are about to close and they might as well sell off their drug inventories and patient prescriptions files to make a little bit of money before the rest of the store closes.

[storewanderer]

The prescription files at the Reno Super Kmart were sold to WAG about four months before the store closure was announced. At the time, they told the store employees the pharmacy was not profitable (it was not filling even 100 scripts a day but still running 9-9 weekdays and also open Sat/Sun most of the day) and closing the pharmacy would improve the store's bottom line. At the time they closed that store's pharmacy, they closed 3 other pharmacies in operating stores too. I'm not sure if those stores ultimately closed or not.

Is it possible these 33 stores are the stores Kmart is closing already?

[BillyGr]

It could be that some (or all) of these pharmacies are in store that are scheduled to close (after all, they'd have to tranfer those prescriptions somewhere, since people still need to be able to get their medications).

On the other hand, Kmart closed most of the pharmacies in this area (Albany, NY area) several years back - at least 4 or 5 years ago - I think maybe one store still has one, maybe none do.

However, quite a few of the stores that had pharmacies are still open today (and none are on the current closing list), so the pharmacy closings may not be connected to store closings at all - perhaps Walgreens just made them an offer that was better (to get the money up front now) than what they'd make having the pharmacies over the long run (after payroll and costs are taken out)?

[Super S]

That article does not mention though what states are affected. If they were all stores in specific states, it would appear Kmart is wanting to ditch Pharmacy only. But if they were scattered, random stores it would be more likely the stores are closing, especially if another Kmart nearby kept its pharmacy open.

The Vancouver, WA Kmart, which closed about two years ago, transferred its prescription files to a new Walgreens that opened nearby just as the store began its closing sale.

Kmart over the years has been inconsistent with pharmacies. In some areas, they only have selected stores with them, and in some areas they do not have pharmacies at all. Meanwhile, Walmart has pharmacies in most if not all of their stores, and Target, which didn't have pharmacies until the early 90s, has been including them in new stores and adding them to older ones as they are remodeled.

Stores that plan to stay open do not typically sell off their pharmacies. Either Kmart is planning to close more locations (very likely) or they are getting out of the pharmacy business (which would be the latest in a series of stupid moves)

[TW-Upstate NY]

Without going into addresses, from the Walgreen's newsroom on their website: -Gadsden, Ala., -Auburn, Ala., Temple City, Ca., Broomfield, Colo., -New Smyrna Beach, Fla., -Orange City, Fla., -St. Augustine, Fla., -Fernandina Beach, Fla., -Lakeland, Fla., -Winter Park, Fla., -Davie, Fla., -Buford, Ga., -Jonesboro, Ga., -Douglasville, Ga., -Cedar Rapids, Iowa, -St. John, Ind., -Portage, Ind., -Clinton, Md., -Chesterfield, Mich., -Brighton, Mich., -New Hope, Minn., -Willmar, Minn., -White Bear Lake, Minn., -Duluth, Minn., -Toledo, Ohio, -Columbus, Ohio, -Medina, Ohio, -Franklin, Tenn., -McAllen, Texas, -Richmond, Va., -Midlothian, Va., -Lacey, Wash., -Rice Lake, Wis.

[TW-Upstate NY]

[quote="BillyGr"]On the other hand, Kmart closed most of the pharmacies in this area (Albany, NY area) several years back - at least 4 or 5 years ago - I think maybe one store still has one, maybe none do.
/quote]
Only three left in this area are in Rotterdam Square Mall, Queensbury and Herkimer. Herkimer was a surprise to me for a few reasons. First of all, it is an older and smaller store (even by K-Mart standards) and right down State Route 5 I'd say less than a mile is a Wal-Mart Supercenter and the two have co-existed since around 1999. Never mind the pharmacy, why the heck do they keep this store open?

[Super S]

Without going into addresses, from the Walgreen's newsroom on their website: -Gadsden, Ala., -Auburn, Ala., Temple City, Ca., Broomfield, Colo., -New Smyrna Beach, Fla., -Orange City, Fla., -St. Augustine, Fla., -Fernandina Beach, Fla., -Lakeland, Fla., -Winter Park, Fla., -Davie, Fla., -Buford, Ga., -Jonesboro, Ga., -Douglasville, Ga., -Cedar Rapids, Iowa, -St. John, Ind., -Portage, Ind., -Clinton, Md., -Chesterfield, Mich., -Brighton, Mich., -New Hope, Minn., -Willmar, Minn., -White Bear Lake, Minn., -Duluth, Minn., -Toledo, Ohio, -Columbus, Ohio, -Medina, Ohio, -Franklin, Tenn., -McAllen, Texas, -Richmond, Va., -Midlothian, Va., -Lacey, Wash., -Rice Lake, Wis.

Looks mostly like these are stores that are closing.