Alpha8472 wrote: ↑December 5th, 2024, 12:25 pm
Two Walgreens in Oakland, California are closing in January and one in Richmond, California. Walgreens cites regulatory and reimbursement issues. These are some of the worst neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am sure reimbursement is a big issue as the stores lose tons of money due to insurance companies not reimbursing enough. https://www.ktvu.com/news/walgreens-sto ... nd-closing
Someone posted in Google Maps a lot of 3 months ago photos of 3434 High in Oakland and it has surprisingly little lockup product (less locked up than a couple Reno Stores).
5809 Foothill looks like a pretty new store. Lots of photos on Yelp. Sharp looking interior. Open ceiling and cement floors. Would be nice if someone took the space and put a grocery store there. Surrounding area... I am surprised someone put this new store in it. Some other additional new development in the area was probably planned before COVID then COVID killed the development.
Richmond one is right by the Richmond FoodsCo. I hope FoodsCo is safe. That Walgreens is run down. FoodsCo hasn't been remodeled in about 10 years so somewhat recent...
Two more Sacramento closure:
1401 Broadway - not too surprised on this. Low traffic area, Target is nearby, no real reason for this store to be there.
7155 24th St. - this is a really busy corner and should have been a good store. Not a great area but extremely busy. Not sure what happened here. Not a lot of nearby pharmacies either.
I guess theft has gotten even worse because the downtown Reno one now has the entire frozen foods doors locked up with a call box, cosmetics is 100% lock up and has been for a while, along with a ton more merchandise locked up. Some items are not in locking cases but chained to the shelves with chains/cords and padlocks. I am not joking. I have never seen this before. This is terrible. I got an item out of a locked case and the employee got my item then said he'd leave it up at the register. There were only 2 employees working in the store from what I could see. Another customer wanted an item and asked him as he was leaving to take my item to the register and he ignored that customer and then went back to stocking shelves 3 aisles away. That customer was still standing at the locked case waiting as I left the store with my purchase. There was also a strange new sign at the register "MINIMAL CASH ON HAND. Walgreens Security and Savings."
Next I went to another miserable Walgreens full of locked cases and found this store had some police out front, not sure what they were doing. Once inside the store multiple "customer service to..." call boxes were going off repeatedly. There was only one employee working and they had customers at the checkout so they could not get out on the floor to unlock cases quickly. While the employee was out on the floor handling the locked cases I observed a couple individuals with backpacks and trenchcoats quickly exit the store about a minute apart from each other and the security alarm went off as they exited. Despite there being two police cars out front nothing seemed to happen. The Walgreens seemed to be getting ready to close (2 hours before the posted closing time) as between checkout and unlocking cases, the employee was also bringing the trash cans from the sidewalk into the store in preparation for closing for the night, which is also strange but supposedly being done as fires were set in the trash can overnight before. What a mess.
I did not feel safe at either of these stores, inside or out.
That sounds truly horrific. Walgreens undersfaffs stores causing shoplifters to feel more emboldened. Then you have employees having to take time to unlock items for paying customers while the shoplifters escape. It is a total doom loop.
You might as well just close these stores. It is a lost cause. I don't see how it is profitable.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on January 10th, 2025, 1:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Walgreens on Blackstone/Clinton in Fresno will be closing not surprisingly due to theft and vandalism. When inevitably the RA on Abby/Olive closes, it will create a big pharmacy desert in the area.
I looks like Walgreens might be playing a little hardball with landlords. Last week on the Walgreens web site it showed a store in southern CA that was going to close on January 5. Turns out it didn't, and their web site shows their previous normal hours. I want in their today and it was fully stocked.
I went into another Reno Walgreens today at Lemmon Drive and I was surprised how empty the shelves in the store were. Nothing is really locked up there; perfumes are about it. This is one of the stores with the cardboard boxes all over the shelves and a limited merchandise assortment. Theft shouldn't be much of a problem in this location. No cashier at the register- have to press a call box for service which pages "I SEE THREE" over the speaker. Very odd. Interesting the district manager allows this there, doesn't allow it at any of the other area locations nor have I ever seen another Walgreens that has the register unattended as that is a security policy risk. Pharmacy was still open and there was a steady trickle of customers walking in/out for pharmacy. Pretty sure the guy who came up was the only employee working on the front end. This chain is at absolute rock bottom.
storewanderer wrote: ↑January 10th, 2025, 12:13 am
No cashier at the register- have to press a call box for service which pages "I SEE THREE" over the speaker. Very odd. Interesting the district manager allows this there, doesn't allow it at any of the other area locations nor have I ever seen another Walgreens that has the register unattended as that is a security policy risk.
Hah, I've been in two different Walgreens stores in the past year where I had to track down a cashier to purchase something as they were out fixing up the aisles or whatever. Hell, in another store, I had to do a small 'mystery shop' job of taking pictures of displays and I didn't see a single soul (employee or customer) the whole 10 minutes or so I was in there.
