Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 10th, 2019, 10:47 pm Walgreens has abandoned the front end in many of their stores. The prices are so high and the shelves are so empty that it would not impact sales much anyway.

The profit is made in the pharmacy, and Walgreens is too cheap to staff the front end.

Are these Walgreens near Walmart or Target stores? If they are, no rational person would pay more for what they can get at Walmart or Target.

Remember that Walgreens was thinking of opening up pharmacies inside of Kroger. The profit would come from the pharmacy and Kroger would supply the labor for the over the counter products outside of the pharmacy.
Walgreens is going to take over the drug department of the Kroger Stores in a test market in TN or KY, I am not really sure which state and have been confused. But the pharmacy will remain in control of Kroger. To me it would make a lot more sense if Kroger gave Walgreens the pharmacy but Kroger kept control of the merchandise area since Kroger is a superior merchandiser and has a good drug program with great pricing. Another bad move by Kroger. If that comes to Smiths I will definitely be shifting more shopping away from Smiths and to online for those items. You know the Rite Aid website is 30% off all items all the time if you search for an item via Google and then find your way to the Rite Aid website that way. Good deals there, a little below Wal Mart or Amazon with that discount.
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

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I stopped by a Walgreens in a nearby city that I had not been to in a couple of years. I was shocked to see that it was abandoned. The windows were taped over with paper. The signs directed customers to travel to another Walgreens in the city to get their prescriptions.

This Walgreens was in San Ramon, California. It is a very wealthy city with million dollar mansions as well as many upper class suburban homes. The shopping center has a Lucky Supermarket, many restaurants, Starbucks, and other popular businesses. I am shocked that Walgreens gave up this prime location right next to a major freeway. These are the kind of rich people who have so much money that they can afford the rip off high prices of Walgreens. The Lucky Pharmacy had signs up welcoming Walgreens customers. I am surprised that competition from a supermarket pharmacy put a Walgreens out of business. The nearest Walgreens is miles away and up in the hills. I doubt people would drive out of their way to get their prescriptions. The customers would most likely have transferred their prescriptions to the Lucky pharmacy. The only other competition in the area are various CVS pharmacies, but those are quite a distance away. If I lived in this area I would choose the Lucky pharmacy.
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

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Walgreens has made some surprising store closures. This store was probably about 25 years old. This closure surprises me unless it is part of something else like a shopping center redevelopment or similar.

It may be Walgreens just ran the store poorly and despite the store being in a busy, visible, high income location customers found other options elsewhere. It is like Grass Valley, CA. Grass Valley is full of retirees. It is a goldmine for most in the pharmacy business there. Walgreens has a store there and it is extremely low volume. Rarely more than a few customers inside and much of the front end has "boxes" on the shelves as they took out aisles and cut out products. Rite Aid and CVS across the street are two of those chain's best stores. Even the Kmart Pharmacy in Grass Valley fills hundreds of prescriptions a day.
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

Another San Francisco, California Walgreens is closing. The 730 Market Street store will close March 3. It is the seventh Walgreens store to close in the city since early 2019.

An employee from the closing store described a bum rush of homeless people grabbing merchandise and running. They had to lock up the Blue Diamond almonds since they were being stolen so often.

There are other Walgreens stores that are not closing in the same city, but those stores have entire aisles empty of merchandise. The employees had to clear out the products due to rampant shoplifting. That is no way to run a store with empty shelves. Many items are locked up or put behind counters. It is really out of control. Employees are told not to stop shoplifters and the city does not prosecute shoplifters. They are seen as a low priority. Why even bother calling the police? Customers complained about the drug addicts and panhandlers sitting on the streets in front of the store. Many of them shoot up in public or go to the bathroom in public on the street.

Walgreens already has driven most of the competition out of San Francisco. They bought all the Rite Aid stores in the city and caused the Merrill's Drugstore to close in 2004. CVS has very few stores in the city left. They also closed some due to shoplifting.

Walgreens has lost customers like crazy with the mess the city has created. The homeless crisis is out of control. People from all over the country come to the city to get huge benefit checks and free services. I never saw a homeless problem like this in New York City.
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

Post by klkla »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 20th, 2020, 11:16 pm The homeless crisis is out of control. People from all over the country come to the city to get huge benefit checks and free services. I never saw a homeless problem like this in New York City.
The homeless problem is a national problem. California gets a disproportionately large percentage because of our mild climate that makes it possible to live on the streets year round. That would not be possible in New York. California has about 13% of the country's population and about 17% of the homeless.

The 'huge benefit checks' is a lie being propagated by conservative media. There are humanitarian services being provided by the state and cities to try and help people, but what the country needs is a national strategy to combat drug abuse and income inequality and that does not appear to be on the radar of either political party right now.

In the meantime companies like Walgreens have to deal with stores that are no longer viable as a result of this problem.
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

Post by jamcool »

Legalizing marijuana is part of the problem....
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

Post by veteran+ »

jamcool wrote: February 21st, 2020, 11:05 pm Legalizing marijuana is part of the problem....
Why is that?
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

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klkla wrote: February 21st, 2020, 4:50 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: February 20th, 2020, 11:16 pm The homeless crisis is out of control. People from all over the country come to the city to get huge benefit checks and free services. I never saw a homeless problem like this in New York City.
The homeless problem is a national problem. California gets a disproportionately large percentage because of our mild climate that makes it possible to live on the streets year round. That would not be possible in New York. California has about 13% of the country's population and about 17% of the homeless.

The 'huge benefit checks' is a lie being propagated by conservative media. There are humanitarian services being provided by the state and cities to try and help people, but what the country needs is a national strategy to combat drug abuse and income inequality and that does not appear to be on the radar of either political party right now.

In the meantime companies like Walgreens have to deal with stores that are no longer viable as a result of this problem.
SPOT on!!!

And before someone challenges the mild weather...........States with similar "mild" weather like Florida have punitive laws that enable communities to jettison homeless or punish them.
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

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klkla wrote: February 21st, 2020, 4:50 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: February 20th, 2020, 11:16 pm The homeless crisis is out of control. People from all over the country come to the city to get huge benefit checks and free services. I never saw a homeless problem like this in New York City.
The homeless problem is a national problem. California gets a disproportionately large percentage because of our mild climate that makes it possible to live on the streets year round. That would not be possible in New York. California has about 13% of the country's population and about 17% of the homeless.

The 'huge benefit checks' is a lie being propagated by conservative media. There are humanitarian services being provided by the state and cities to try and help people, but what the country needs is a national strategy to combat drug abuse and income inequality and that does not appear to be on the radar of either political party right now.

In the meantime companies like Walgreens have to deal with stores that are no longer viable as a result of this problem.
Add to this, and this has been especially relevant in CA (and a number of other cities in the west) the ongoing cost increases in rent and lack of "cheap" shelter options for people. I'm talking those old dilapidated motels that ran "weekly" rentals. Many property owners have opted to demolish those old motels to do something with the land that will make more money, and many people who were living in those, as those were truly "bottom rate" shelter, now cannot afford other options and are ending up as homeless as a result of this. Living conditions in those places were terrible but at least the people had a private room, running water, and shelter. A definite step up from being homeless.

But you are in denial if you think the problem is not disproportionately impacting retailers in CA compared to other parts of the US. In CA retailers we are seeing more locked up product, locked up restrooms, and more "odd incidents" than anywhere else in the country. You see this everywhere in bad neighborhood type stores, but in CA it spreads way beyond those bad neighborhoods. Pharmacy robberies in perfectly safe neighborhoods and now you have Rite Aid installing glass across its pharmacies to protect its employees. Not pointing specifically at the homeless as the reason for any of this, but retailers in CA have a much more difficult operating environment than elsewhere for many reasons that nobody wants to talk about and it is not getting any easier.

The benefit checks in CA are definitely not "huge" but they are a lot larger than surrounding states and provide many more services than surrounding states. People will go where they can get the most help.
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Re: Walgreens plans to close 200 stores

Post by veteran+ »

Oregon and Washington are having similar problems but the temperate weather in most of Cali results in the perfect storm of issues.
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