Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

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kr.abs.swy
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by kr.abs.swy »

Also Corvallis, which has two Bi-Marts with pharmacies (both stores seem to do reasonably well from what I can tell - the only chain discount store competition in town is a small Fred Meyer, and both stores are in good locations) and no Walgreen's stores (almost certainly one of the largest towns in Oregon without a Walgreen's). Chain pharmacies in town are 3 Safeways, 1 Rite Aid, 1 Fred Meyer and 1 Walmart Neighborhood Market. There is also a pharmacy operated by the hospital, which the hospital seems to all but require people in their health plan to use.
bryceleinan wrote: October 3rd, 2021, 11:00 am If I had to take a stab at what pharmacies would remain Walgreens going forward, here are a few:

Brookings (only other chains are Fred Meyer and Rite Aid)
Coos Bay (there is a Walgreens in North Bend, a ways away from the Coos Bay store)
La Pine (there is an independent down the street, but no other chains. This and Winston are among the busiest stores)
Klamath Falls (no Walgreens in town, however, Fred Meyer and Rite Aid are nearby)
Winston (closest Walgreens is in Roseburg)
Florence (no Walgreens in town, has a Rite Aid and Fred Meyer)
Madras (Rite Aid and Safeway?)

There are others I am probably missing in Idaho and Washington... maybe places like Star / Kuna?
kr.abs.swy
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by kr.abs.swy »

And, probably like everywhere else, these Rite Aids are hit and miss. More than a few are in tired strip malls. Our local store looks great and has a very busy pharmacy, but has a lot of empty shelves throughout the store (which is not an oversized former PayLess -- this was a replacement store built about 10 years ago).
Super S wrote: October 4th, 2021, 8:34 am
storewanderer wrote: October 3rd, 2021, 10:29 pm
bryceleinan wrote: October 3rd, 2021, 11:00 am If I had to take a stab at what pharmacies would remain Walgreens going forward, here are a few:

Brookings (only other chains are Fred Meyer and Rite Aid)
Coos Bay (there is a Walgreens in North Bend, a ways away from the Coos Bay store)
La Pine (there is an independent down the street, but no other chains. This and Winston are among the busiest stores)
Klamath Falls (no Walgreens in town, however, Fred Meyer and Rite Aid are nearby)
Winston (closest Walgreens is in Roseburg)
Florence (no Walgreens in town, has a Rite Aid and Fred Meyer)
Madras (Rite Aid and Safeway?)

There are others I am probably missing in Idaho and Washington... maybe places like Star / Kuna?
My observation of Walgreens in rural areas has been they simply do not perform well. There is something about Walgreens, that just does not mesh in the rural communities. Rite Aid does well in rural communities and CVS seems to hold its own. Every rural Walgreens I know of is a very low volume store with many SKUs removed from front store, cardboard boxes on the shelves covering where merchandise used to be, short pharmacy hours, and in some cases even short store hours. Back in the 00's, when Walgreens stopped its aggressive new build store program, was toward the end phase of the program when they were going to keep building in rural communities. They started with the 10-15k population towns and the results for so many of those stores were so bad when they opened that was when they shelved the aggressive open a new store every 12 hours or whatever it was program because they knew better than to push into the 5k-10k population towns after seeing how warmly (not) they were received in the 10-15k population towns. Of course back then they had no liquor which in itself probably made a large segment of customers determine the store was simply not one that met their needs.

I am rather surprised Walgreens is even interested in having a pharmacy in these remote locations.
Keep in mind that CVS has very few standalone stores in the Pacific Northwest. In most areas CVS is the pharmacy inside Target, and Target doesn't have many stores in rural areas, and does not operate on the coast. Walgreens might do ok with this.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

kr.abs.swy wrote: October 4th, 2021, 10:39 am And, probably like everywhere else, these Rite Aids are hit and miss. More than a few are in tired strip malls. Our local store looks great and has a very busy pharmacy, but has a lot of empty shelves throughout the store (which is not an oversized former PayLess -- this was a replacement store built about 10 years ago).
There are plenty of those left in my neck of the woods. Many of them have an abandoned garden center.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

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storewanderer wrote: October 3rd, 2021, 10:29 pm My observation of Walgreens in rural areas has been they simply do not perform well. There is something about Walgreens, that just does not mesh in the rural communities. Rite Aid does well in rural communities and CVS seems to hold its own. Every rural Walgreens I know of is a very low volume store with many SKUs removed from front store, cardboard boxes on the shelves covering where merchandise used to be, short pharmacy hours, and in some cases even short store hours. Back in the 00's, when Walgreens stopped its aggressive new build store program, was toward the end phase of the program when they were going to keep building in rural communities. They started with the 10-15k population towns and the results for so many of those stores were so bad when they opened that was when they shelved the aggressive open a new store every 12 hours or whatever it was program because they knew better than to push into the 5k-10k population towns after seeing how warmly (not) they were received in the 10-15k population towns. Of course back then they had no liquor which in itself probably made a large segment of customers determine the store was simply not one that met their needs.

I am rather surprised Walgreens is even interested in having a pharmacy in these remote locations.
They also inherited many stores in the Rite Aid takeovers that are in those smaller towns (at least here in NY) - a few of them would fall into the under 10,000 population (but then again many of those towns are not too close to other options, so that alone would help them get customers for the convenience factor).
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

BillyGr wrote: October 4th, 2021, 4:23 pm They also inherited many stores in the Rite Aid takeovers that are in those smaller towns (at least here in NY) - a few of them would fall into the under 10,000 population (but then again many of those towns are not too close to other options, so that alone would help them get customers for the convenience factor).
Northville comes to mind around here. Rite-Aid built that store in the early-mid 90's and it was well received by the community since the nearest pharmacies even then were 10+ miles away. That area also has a lot of summer visitors so that location quite likely benefits from that as well.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by bryceleinan »

So, I’m up in Oregon right now… Klamath Falls is one of the stores getting an in-store Walgreens, as per the signage.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by kr.abs.swy »

Bi-Mart has announced the transfer of pharmacy files from four stores so far: Roseburg, Sutherlin, Emmett and Star. The Sutherlin files were transferred to a Walgreens that is 17 minutes away in Roseburg, and the Star files were transferred to a Walgreens that is 16 minutes away in Meridian.

A quick Google Maps search shows that Sutherlin and Star have in-town independent pharmacies. Star is also going to be getting an Albertsons store soon, which will have a pharmacy. https://boisedev.com/news/2021/02/04/albertsons-star/

If this is how they are planning to handle this, it does not seem like Walgreen's will be operating that many pharmacies inside Bi-Mart. It also seems like they will be ceding a significant percentage of these files to more convenient pharmacies.

https://www.bimart.com/pharmacy/vaccinations#updates
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

kr.abs.swy wrote: October 22nd, 2021, 7:23 am Bi-Mart has announced the transfer of pharmacy files from four stores so far: Roseburg, Sutherlin, Emmett and Star. The Sutherlin files were transferred to a Walgreens that is 17 minutes away in Roseburg, and the Star files were transferred to a Walgreens that is 16 minutes away in Meridian.

A quick Google Maps search shows that Sutherlin and Star have in-town independent pharmacies. Star is also going to be getting an Albertsons store soon, which will have a pharmacy. https://boisedev.com/news/2021/02/04/albertsons-star/

If this is how they are planning to handle this, it does not seem like Walgreen's will be operating that many pharmacies inside Bi-Mart. It also seems like they will be ceding a significant percentage of these files to more convenient pharmacies.

https://www.bimart.com/pharmacy/vaccinations#updates
There is already an open and operating Ridley's with a pharmacy in Star also. There were previously a couple of Walgreens closer to Star on the edge of Eagle (one in Garden City proper- a Dollar Tree now, another a bit south of Eagle) but both went out of business.

This is a prime example of Walgreens "attitude" toward small communities. Star may be remote and population records show a low population but it has been growing significantly and I think population there is going to be 10k within another couple years. Why would Walgreens not continue to operate within the Bi-Mart in a growing area like that and then make plans to build a freestanding store there in the next few years?

Walgreens behavior around Boise is very interesting. First they close multiple stores. Then they claim they want to buy Rite Aid Stores in Boise, then pull out of that due to FTC concerns. Now this.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by bryceleinan »

Creswell is transferring to Cottage Grove, which is a 10 minute drive down the I-5... I am driving to Coos Bay on Wednesday. so I will see what that store and Winston are doing.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

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bryceleinan wrote: October 24th, 2021, 6:35 pm Creswell is transferring to Cottage Grove, which is a 10 minute drive down the I-5... I am driving to Coos Bay on Wednesday. so I will see what that store and Winston are doing.
This is what you get with less competition. This is why it is very bad to see these types of things happening where more and more players are exiting the pharmacy business.

A 10 minute drive doesn't sound like a big deal but when it is elderly people, or people who are sick, it is a big deal.
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