CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

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CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by storewanderer »

CVS closed a store in Sparks, NV at 2300 Oddie Blvd. This was a pretty sudden closure, maybe a month notice.

This store was a complete dive (OLD Longs in a bad neighborhood), dirty, messy, smelled funny, full of handwritten signs, and just all around a really awful operation. The employees were always really friendly... but the store was such a wreck. I should say employee- there usually seemed to only be one on the front end. There is a newer Walgreens across the street. Supposedly CVS planned to close this store when they merged in Longs but kept it open due to the new Walgreens opening across the street (CVS had recently built a new 24 hour store about a mile away, which is no longer a 24 hour store and in general has not done very well).

Between this closure, the closure/rebuild of 1250 West 7th in Reno, and the replacement of 285 East Plumb in Reno, CVS seems to be making some real progress in my area of getting rid of the dive stores. The next dive store they need to address is 5019 McCarran Blvd in Reno.
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: April 25th, 2021, 11:07 pm CVS closed a store in Sparks, NV at 2300 Oddie Blvd. This was a pretty sudden closure, maybe a month notice.

This store was a complete dive (OLD Longs in a bad neighborhood), dirty, messy, smelled funny, full of handwritten signs, and just all around a really awful operation. The employees were always really friendly... but the store was such a wreck. I should say employee- there usually seemed to only be one on the front end. There is a newer Walgreens across the street. Supposedly CVS planned to close this store when they merged in Longs but kept it open due to the new Walgreens opening across the street (CVS had recently built a new 24 hour store about a mile away, which is no longer a 24 hour store and in general has not done very well).

Between this closure, the closure/rebuild of 1250 West 7th in Reno, and the replacement of 285 East Plumb in Reno, CVS seems to be making some real progress in my area of getting rid of the dive stores. The next dive store they need to address is 5019 McCarran Blvd in Reno.
I kinda think the whole plaza is getting a bulldoze operation. I saw Savers closed over there too - that plaza used to be a happening place when you had Lucky, Longs and Ernst. I never understood why that store remained open when they built up on Northtowne.

As far as 5019 McCarran, never really understood that plaza after Albertsons moved out and Big Lots moved in. Seems like a really odd place for a more upscale retailer like Trader Joe's to be. I would think the CVS prescription business could be moved to the nearby Reno Target pretty easily and no one would care, plus you have the CVS down at Longley and Virginia (former Rite Aid) that isn't that far away.
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by storewanderer »

bryceleinan wrote: April 30th, 2021, 7:54 pm I kinda think the whole plaza is getting a bulldoze operation. I saw Savers closed over there too - that plaza used to be a happening place when you had Lucky, Longs and Ernst. I never understood why that store remained open when they built up on Northtowne.

As far as 5019 McCarran, never really understood that plaza after Albertsons moved out and Big Lots moved in. Seems like a really odd place for a more upscale retailer like Trader Joe's to be. I would think the CVS prescription business could be moved to the nearby Reno Target pretty easily and no one would care, plus you have the CVS down at Longley and Virginia (former Rite Aid) that isn't that far away.
The Manila Hong Kong Store in the Oddie plaza is moving across the street into the former Kmart center so I am also pretty suspicious the whole center is going away. Hopefully the other small businesses left there can relocate nearby, the small shop space in that CVS/Savers center was usually kept full over the years.

Northtowne CVS opened while the Longs merger was pending as I recall. Initially they were going to close Oddie and move it there but when Walgreens opened on Oddie they decided to stay open on Oddie to not give the intersection to Walgreens. Northtowne CVS has not done very well (started as a 24 hour store and has since cut hours multiple times; has not done even close to what was thought), so they probably needed to do this to prop that store up. Compared to the other two stores CVS built after they bought Sav-On (Steamboat and Sparks/Los Altos) which have done quite well, Northtowne was quite a dud despite being in the highest traffic location of the 3 sites CVS built.

CVS owns the building at 5019 McCarran.
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by bryceleinan »

There is a permit out on Accela to demo the Loan Max building (I think it used to be a Skippers and possibly Cozy's back in the day) by the same people building all the apartments over there. I'm thinking Evergreen Plaza will be next, which explains CVS' closure.
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by storewanderer »

What is funny is Raleys closed the Sak N Save Pharmacy on the next block and sold those files to this CVS that has now closed. That Sak N Save Pharmacy had steady business when Scolaris ran the store, not sure if that changed once Raleys took over, but it is interesting CVS closed a store that did a file buy like that.

Oddie was always a bit odd with pharmacies- Kmart had no in-store pharmacy despite having plenty of space for it (the current Family Dollar Space was once a long time independent drug store but gone by the mid 90's) and Albertsons there also had no in-store pharmacy as typical (Shopko supposedly controlled the pharmacy lease in that center Evergreen). Not sure who bought Shopko's files when they closed...
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by Bagels »

In my area, CVS has been actively closing supersized former Longs & Savon Drug stores. Several others were heavily renovated and shrunk. Guess it’s a trend...
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: June 12th, 2021, 2:33 pm In my area, CVS has been actively closing supersized former Longs & Savon Drug stores. Several others were heavily renovated and shrunk. Guess it’s a trend...
CVS needs to exit these large old poorly maintained and undermerchandised (and in the case of the Longs-smelly) stores. They are just awful.

There are a few CVS in Northern California in former Payless units (those ones Longs bought in the late 90's) that CVS has actually remodeled in the past year or two, and somehow they actually feel fully merchandised. These stores also do not have the old run down depressing feel or bad odor of the former original Longs Stores. The aisles are very, very wide and the shelves are a bit short but despite this the stores really do seem to have a large complete product mix, larger than a typical CVS. These stores feel like they have more inventory and product mix than the current Rite Aids do.

CVS really needs to address the former 80's Longs store in Reno at 5019 McCarran Blvd. This store is in a high profile location, always an uncomfortable temperature, smells terrible, merchandise is spread out and much of it looks very aged, and it is just an all around awful store. Some of the employees (the 1 or 2 on duty at a given time since that is all they staff it with) are pretty friendly and I have no idea how they can work in this place with the odor/temperature issues that have been going on for years. CVS owns this building. Now that this Oddie store is gone and Reno 7th Street is gone, this is the worst CVS around.
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by Jeff »

There are a few huge CVS stores that they have done a good job of remodeling here. Montebello north, a former Sav-on Drugs, actually walled off a good 1/4 of the store and today they use it for back stock. Before a remodel 10 years ago, this area was a furniture section for CVS, definitely odd merchandising. What was fun was to go in there and see the old Sav-on walls not remodeled. This was closed off by a curtain when they were not using it. They also closed off an entrance to the store at this time which is still there, but not used.

Recently the CVS in Arcadia was downsized. It originally was a Super Safeway in the 70s and 80s and a wall between the two stores had openings at the front and rear of the wall. This was closed off and an Aldi opened on one side and the CVS in the other side.
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by Alpha8472 »

I have seen a CVS in Dublin, California that was downsized. It used to be a huge Payless Store then it ended up as Longs Drugs. Then CVS took over and ran it into the ground. The entire store was too huge for CVS. They did not know what to do with all of that floor space. They piled huge areas full of bottle water. You could drive trucks through the aisles with all that space.

CVS split the store up and some other stores moved in. A new tiny CVS was created in part of the space. It looks nice, but it is limited in selection.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on June 16th, 2021, 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: CVS Store Closure Sparks, NV

Post by rwsandiego »

One of the three (3!!) CVSs in the Point Loma area of San Diego (a former Long's) was split between a Grocery Outlet and CVS. If memory serves, that store started as a Ralphs before becoming a Long's. It's at the intersection of West Point Loma Drive, Midway Drive, and Sports Arena Blvd. It was trashy as a Longs. The second one was a trashy SavOn (Midway Drive and Rosecrans). When it was remodeled CVS closed on entrance but did a terrible job painting over the glass door. From the Google Maps pics it seems it has been remodeled again. This time the front is papered over with CVS signage. It looks a LOT better. The third one was just south of this one on Rosecrans. Looks like it has closed.

One thing I'll say for CVS is they eliminated the ridiculously high prices Longs used to charge at the Horton Plaza mini-store. The first year I lived in downtown San Diego that was the only drugstore and they charged much higher prices than any other Longs. CVS aligned the prices with other CVSs.
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