Page 2 of 5

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 13th, 2009, 8:23 pm
by Alpha8472
I visited the Longs Drugs flagship store in downtown Walnut Creek today. The Seattle's Best Coffee Cafe has been removed. The area is now filled with lawn chairs and various items for sale.

It is sad. I liked the cafe. I guess CVS decided they didn't want a cafe in the store. The store was still had a fruit and produce section. Also, there were still plenty of employees asking customers if they needed help with anything.

I saw a tremendous amount of CVS brand products. Very few Longs brand products remain. I heard an employee saying that the Longs name will be changed in a couple of months.

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 15th, 2009, 4:15 pm
by romleys
Its interesting to see that Longs advertisements are still copyrighted by Longs and has no mentioning of CVS. Remember the whole Albertsons LLC/Lucky Stores Inc. "phase"...?

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 15th, 2009, 9:32 pm
by Alpha8472
I believe the ads are still made by the people at the Longs Headquarters in Walnut Creek. Once, the stores switch over to the CVS name, the Walnut Creek people will be terminated and CVS ads will be used.

This week they started to advertise CVS products in the Longs Ad. Slowly the CVS name will be seen more and more. I have noticed new CVS Pharmacy commercials for the past few months on TV.

This is kind of like Chase taking over Washington Mutual. I walked into a WaMu on Friday and some guys were doing something to the sign. When I came out of the bank, a Chase sign had been placed over the WaMu sign. That was quite a surprise and more sudden than I had thought it would be.

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 18th, 2009, 6:22 pm
by Alpha8472
I heard a store manager talking to an employee. They were going over the changes to be made to their Longs Drugs store. The aisles will be narrowed to 5 feet. Lower shelves will be installed. The narrow aisles will compensate for the reduced capacity of the lower shelves. Merchandise will be rearranged. Carpet will be installed. In some areas, they will have to install new floor tiles once the shelves are moved. Then they will put in the carpet. CVS dictates the exact layout of the store and the store managers have to follow the rules.

I liked the wide aisles at Longs Drugs. It was spacious and easy to navigate. Now everything will be claustrophobic and narrow. I also visited a Walgreens today. Walgreens stores have narrow aisles and tall shelves. They like to pack in the merchandise. However, I find the layout crowded and uncomfortable.

I don't know why CVS likes lower shelves. Maybe it is because most of their shoppers are women. Women are generally shorter than men and the lower shelves provide easier access to all merchandise.

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 19th, 2009, 3:48 pm
by Brian Lutz
Up here, Bartell Drugs uses the shorter aisles as well. It makes the store seem more open than the tall shelves in the competitors stores do, and the aisles don't seem to be that much narrower than the ones at Rite Aid or Walgreens.

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 19th, 2009, 7:42 pm
by lvkewlkid
Alpha8472 wrote:I heard a store manager talking to an employee. They were going over the changes to be made to their Longs Drugs store. The aisles will be narrowed to 5 feet. Lower shelves will be installed. The narrow aisles will compensate for the reduced capacity of the lower shelves. Merchandise will be rearranged. Carpet will be installed. In some areas, they will have to install new floor tiles once the shelves are moved. Then they will put in the carpet. CVS dictates the exact layout of the store and the store managers have to follow the rules.

I liked the wide aisles at Longs Drugs. It was spacious and easy to navigate. Now everything will be claustrophobic and narrow. I also visited a Walgreens today. Walgreens stores have narrow aisles and tall shelves. They like to pack in the merchandise. However, I find the layout crowded and uncomfortable.

I don't know why CVS likes lower shelves. Maybe it is because most of their shoppers are women. Women are generally shorter than men and the lower shelves provide easier access to all merchandise.
They did this in most of the Las Vegas former Sav-Ons, they moved all the shelves and periodically over a few months carpeted the store, some stores, don't have tile to the pharmacy, but some do

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 1:15 am
by storewanderer
CVS has wide aisles in the converted Sav-On Stores here; they are just as wide as before if not more wide. One store (photos posted previously) did not lower shelves (or receive carpet).

The new construction CVS Stores have fairly narrow aisles, however.

The Reno Longs received large pallet-size shipments of garden dirt, mulch, and like last week. Did it get posted on here that CVS is closing the Longs distro center?

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 21st, 2009, 3:15 am
by Alpha8472
Where is the Longs Distribution Center? What will CVS do without it?

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 21st, 2009, 12:41 pm
by storewanderer
CVS just opened another new store in Reno. Here are some photos: http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa11 ... orthtowne/

Compare this to a new construction Rite Aid:
http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa11 ... /?start=80 Pages 4 and 5:
728 SW 4th Ontario, OR.

Re: Longs Drugs Changing Into CVS

Posted: March 21st, 2009, 12:48 pm
by storewanderer
I want to say Longs DC is in Patterson. CVS has the distro center down in SoCal from Sav-On.