Walgreens Close To Buying Rite Aid

[pseudo3d]

Well, the recent news about the death of the Walmart Express stores ends any talk of them taking over excess drug store spaces...

[Alpha8472]

Rite Aid shareholders have approved the takeover offer from Walgreens. If Rite Aid is eliminated, then there will be only 2 major drug store chains in the entire country: Walgreens and CVS. Consumers will be left with fewer choices. There will be less competition and we could see huge price increases due to the fact that there will fewer drug stores to choose from.

The deal must still pass antitrust concerns raised by the FTC.

[veteran+]

Rite Aid shareholders have approved the takeover offer from Walgreens. If Rite Aid is eliminated, then there will be only 2 major drug store chains in the entire country: Walgreens and CVS. Consumers will be left with fewer choices. There will be less competition and we could see huge price increases due to the fact that there will fewer drug stores to choose from.

The deal must still pass antitrust concerns raised by the FTC.

Amazing, isn't it?

Fewer choices for consumers and fewer choices for employees and hardly anyone bats an eye.

The anti competition laws have been made into a farce.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

It would be interesting how California attorney general Kamala Harris weighs in on this as my Golden State alone will get a higher focus in the antitrust review.In the 916 alone(my neck of the woods),several RAD locations(Land Park,Calvine,both North Sac locations,West Sac,North Highlands,Folsom,West Roseville,and the Arcadia Drive store in Citrus Heights which is my longtime home store)are within a quarter of a mile(perhaps the least stringent criteria used by the FTC)of incumbent WAG locations;and all,in addition to possibly other Golden State RAD locations with a quarter mile of existing WAG stores,are divestiture candidates unless WAG is willing to cooperate with the various UFCW locals(they will definitely have to honor existing CBA's since the number of stores being acquired are well above a certain threshold).This doesn't take into account any additional divestiture concessions that Harris and her counterparts in other overlap-heavy states may request.The divestiture scenarios will also be interesting.On top of few remaining regional pharmacy chains remaining(Seattle's Bartell Drugs is the only one left on the West Coast),the pharmacy industry is regulated enough that it may hard to even divest to the regionals even if they had deep-enough pockets to avoid risk pulling a 'Haggen.'Another thing is that at least in the jurisdiction of my UFCW8GS(if not other California UFCW locals as well),if another operator acquires at least 25% of the locations with union jurisdiction,they must also honor the contract.I have also read that CVS has expanded cooperation with the various Southern California locals which has resulted in many of the post-SavOn merger locations being unionized joining already-union SavOn legacy locations(that's even though Longs Drugs was never union).As the Central Valley and the Sierra(my union covers inland areas of northern and central California from Bakersfield northward)figure to be more affected by divestitures than SoCal or even the Bay Area,it would be interesting how this scenario plays out since CVS is the only chain in position to acquire divested stores unless ABSWY decides to revive the freestanding Sav-On/Osco operation.Thank goodness W**-M**t Express flopped...

DISCLOSURE:I'm a 17-year RAD employee who works at a potential divestiture-targeted store.

[storewanderer]

I just hope something, anything, puts the blocks on this Walgreens/Rite Aid "merger."

The feds, after their recent handling of Albertsons/Haggen, letting Albertsons re-buy stores they were required to divest, well, I guess we will see...

The union situation sounds like what happened with Thrifty and Payless long ago. Wasn't Thrifty union and Payless non-union?

[norcalriteaidclerk]

I just hope something, anything, puts the blocks on this Walgreens/Rite Aid "merger."

The feds, after their recent handling of Albertsons/Haggen, letting Albertsons re-buy stores they were required to divest, well, I guess we will see...

The union situation sounds like what happened with Thrifty and Payless long ago. Wasn't Thrifty union and Payless non-union?

That was indeed the case before Thrifty and PayLess merged.The unionization may have become uniform during the Thrifty Payless era,if not then after Rite Aid acquired Thrifty Payless...

[storewanderer]

I don't like CVS too much but I can say they seem to have kept around the old/long time employees from Longs and Sav-On. Many clerks and store managers from Longs and Sav-On are still in CVS Stores in my area. There are also a couple former Albertsons grocery store managers running CVS Stores here. Not sure why they did not stay at Save Mart.

[BillyGr]

Kind of hard to say what they would (or not) do. The most recent one up this way was when Rite Aid acquired the Eckerd/Brooks chain.

For the most part, they weren't required to get rid of any stores - the couple cases I know of where they were had situations where the Rite Aid & Eckerd were the only 2 drugstores in the town. In those couple, one went to a small chain (Kinney, and that one was a few miles from the nearest location of theirs) and one became a Medicine Shoppe (which didn't last too long).
Other than that, the company either kept or closed stores as they chose, and did all three (one situation where the two were across from each other, they kept the Rite Aid (newer) and closed the older Eckerd almost immediately, another they closed the (older) Rite Aid and kept the newer Eckerd (but only after running both for a year or so) and a third they kept the Eckerd (since there was no Rite Aid right nearby, but two others on the same stretch of road within a few miles, including the one referenced above with the closed older Eckerd across from it).

Not that, of course, that predicts anything for this - the only thing I heard from an employee was that no changes were expected this year.
Also, of course, in this area, Walgreens only moved (back) in a few years ago and has probably a dozen stores in a 50 mile radius, so the overlap would be fairly small in the long run.

It would be interesting how California attorney general Kamala Harris weighs in on this as my Golden State alone will get a higher focus in the antitrust review.In the 916 alone(my neck of the woods),several RAD locations(Land Park,both North Sac locations,West Sac,North Highlands,Folsom,West Roseville,and the Arcadia Drive store in Citrus Heights which is my longtime home store)are within a quarter of a mile(perhaps the least stringent criteria used by the FTC)of incumbent WAG locations;and all,in addition to possibly other Golden State RAD locations with a quarter mile of existing WAG stores,are divestiture candidates unless WAG is willing to cooperate with the various UFCW locals(they will definitely have to honor existing CBA's since the number of stores being acquired are well above a certain threshold).This doesn't take into account any additional divestiture concessions that Harris and her counterparts in other overlap-heavy states may request.The divestiture scenarios will also be interesting.On top of few remaining regional pharmacy chains remaining(Seattle's Bartell Drugs is the only one left on the West Coast),the pharmacy industry is regulated enough that it may hard to even divest to the regionals even if they had deep-enough pockets to avoid risk pulling a 'Haggen.'Another thing is that at least in the jurisdiction of my UFCW8GS(if not other California UFCW locals as well),if another operator acquires at least 25% of the locations with union jurisdiction,they must also honor the contract.I have also read that CVS has expanded cooperation with the various Southern California locals which has resulted in many of the post-SavOn merger locations being unionized joining already-union SavOn legacy locations(that's even though Longs Drugs was never union).As the Central Valley and the Sierra(my union covers inland areas of northern and central California from Bakersfield northward)figure to be more affected by divestitures than SoCal or even the Bay Area,it would be interesting how this scenario plays out since CVS is the only chain in position to acquire divested stores unless ABSWY decides to revive the freestanding Sav-On/Osco operation.Thank goodness W**-M**t Express flopped...

DISCLOSURE:I'm a 17-year RAD employee who works at a potential divestiture-targeted store.

[Alpha8472]

Stefano Pessina, the CEO of the Walgreens Boots Alliance, has stated in a conference call to investors that he expects the merger to go through by the end of 2016 and that only about 500 stores will be closed.

Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate services company, analyzed the situation and states that there are 3,000 Walgreens stores in such close proximity to Rite Aid stores that they should be closed or divested. If the government does not step in and force those stores to be divested it would clearly indicate that someone is being bribed by Walgreens to turn a blind eye to this massive monopoly by Walgreens.

The Walgreens Boots Alliance not only owns Walgreens, but Boots pharmacies throughout Europe as well as pharmacies across other countries worldwide. The company is so huge that 3,000 stores is simply a drop in a bucket. The company already owns so many pharmacies across the world that no government would dare to say no to this rich and powerful company.

[veteran+]

Stefano Pessina, the CEO of the Walgreens Boots Alliance, has stated in a conference call to investors that he expects the merger to go through by the end of 2016 and that only about 500 stores will be closed.

Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate services company, analyzed the situation and states that there are 3,000 Walgreens stores in such close proximity to Rite Aid stores that they should be closed or divested. If the government does not step in and force those stores to be divested it would clearly indicate that someone is being bribed by Walgreens to turn a blind eye to this massive monopoly by Walgreens.

The Walgreens Boots Alliance not only owns Walgreens, but Boots pharmacies throughout Europe as well as pharmacies across other countries worldwide. The company is so huge that 3,000 stores is simply a drop in a bucket. The company already owns so many pharmacies across the world that no government would dare to say no to this rich and powerful company.

Sad and awful news!!!

Amazing how all the anti trust laws have been diluted or just simply ignored.

The common citizen continues to lose the power of choices!

Can't wait to hear all the PR promulgated synergies and benefits to the consumer and employee. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!