Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

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kr.abs.swy
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Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by kr.abs.swy »

Bi-Mart just announced that they will be selling all of their remaining pharmacy files to Walgreen's.

They already had closed the Portland-area pharmacies. Now they are doing the same thing in the rest of their stores.

The files are moving to a nearby Walgreen's where there is a nearby Walgreen's. Where there isn't, Walgreen's will be running pharmacies in the Bi-Mart stores.

They clearly don't think they are making much money running pharmacies. I can't help but wonder how much non-pharmacy business they are sending down the street when people stop at Walgreen's to fill their prescriptions ...

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/202 ... reens.html
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

Walgreens may have come up with an offer they couldn't refuse trying to catch up with the dominance Rite Aid got by buying Bartell...

I suspect people who were getting prescriptions from Bi-Mart instead of Walgreens in the first place had a reason for doing so. If they wanted to use Walgreens, they would have already been doing so. Hopefully many folks can find a good independent or grocery store pharmacy to use.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Bi-Mart is like a Pamida/ALCO type store, right?
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: September 30th, 2021, 11:11 pm Bi-Mart is like a Pamida/ALCO type store, right?
Bi Mart used to be owned by Thrifty (who also owned a few sporting goods chains including Big 5) and you pay them $5 or $10 for a "lifetime" membership. Rite Aid owned Bi Mart for a few months then spun the thing off. They have larger stores and more consumables and also more hardlines than a Pamida/Alco type store had and are definitely a lot stronger on price than those two chains were (especially Pamida once Shopko started to control it). At least some still mix paint in the store and they have a heavy mix on sporting goods/automotive. Bi Mart by most measures would be considered over-SKUed.

I'm not sure what other chain I'd compare Bi-Mart to. It is a bit of a unique package.

I think this is a move for Walgreens to attempt to completely dominate pharmacy in Oregon, much like Rite Aid did by purchasing Bartell in WA. I have news for Walgreens- it is going to be a lot more lucrative for Rite Aid to hold Bartell in a lot of higher income Seattle suburbs, than for Walgreens to be picking up a bunch of random pharmacies in primarily rural or lower middle class type of discount stores...
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: September 30th, 2021, 11:29 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote: September 30th, 2021, 11:11 pm Bi-Mart is like a Pamida/ALCO type store, right?
Bi Mart used to be owned by Thrifty (who also owned a few sporting goods chains including Big 5) and you pay them $5 or $10 for a "lifetime" membership. Rite Aid owned Bi Mart for a few months then spun the thing off. They have larger stores and more consumables and also more hardlines than a Pamida/Alco type store had and are definitely a lot stronger on price than those two chains were (especially Pamida once Shopko started to control it). At least some still mix paint in the store and they have a heavy mix on sporting goods/automotive. Bi Mart by most measures would be considered over-SKUed.

I'm not sure what other chain I'd compare Bi-Mart to. It is a bit of a unique package.

I think this is a move for Walgreens to attempt to completely dominate pharmacy in Oregon, much like Rite Aid did by purchasing Bartell in WA. I have news for Walgreens- it is going to be a lot more lucrative for Rite Aid to hold Bartell in a lot of higher income Seattle suburbs, than for Walgreens to be picking up a bunch of random pharmacies in primarily rural or lower middle class type of discount stores...
Although Bi-Mart has a pretty standardized and simple store design/layout, they do have a few acquired buildings, including a few former PayLess Drug buildings, and a former Marina Safeway building in NE Portland. They also have that store in Beaverton that started life as something else.

It is a bit of a unique mix. But they do seem to be in touch with local preferences and prices are competitive.

I think Bi-Mart can survive without pharmacies. I shop at a few of the locations where the pharmacies were removed in the last few years and the stores still seem just as busy as before. They do carry a lot of items that are not found at Walgreens, and at much better prices.

As for Walgreens, this is a way to test the waters for them for potential new locations. I highly doubt that they will end up taking over an entire Bi-Mart location, but could potentially open new locations in some of the towns where they are going to operate pharmacies inside Bi-Mart.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by kr.abs.swy »

I agree with Storewanderer. It is difficult to compare Bi-Mart to anything. The stores are basic without any fancy decor and they don't go overboard on the facade, but they manage to feel clean and maintained inside. They fill the same type of niche as a Pamida or Alco would have, with a large variety of departments (fairly extensive sporting goods, more hardware than you would expect, some grocery, plenty of health and beauty, a few clothes, decent electronics, decent garden section in season) but tending to have deeper variety within those departments than Pamida would have had. I agree with Storewanderer that you would tend to consider them over SKUed, but the stores somehow manage to not feel too terribly jammed full with merchandise. Employees tend to be reasonably friendly and helpful. Prices are definitely better than you would expect. They will tend to be more expensive than a Walmart, but nowhere close to what you would find in a drugstore. They have some quirky marketing programs. The stores tend to be closer to the size of a supermarket than a discount store. From what I can tell, they usually seem to do reasonable volume. They seem to have their sweet spot in towns like Monmouth or Kuna or Lincoln City or Weiser where there isn't a Walmart, but they aren't afraid to exist in towns with larger competition -- there are lots of Bi-Marts in Eugene and Portland also. They seem to know exactly who their customer is and merchandise very carefully with that customer in mind. Not knowing what their financial condition is, they do seem like a company that has figured out how to compete by using their space productively, merchandising well and being competitive on price.

Walgreen's doesn't seem to be interested in building new stores right now, but this would give them an opportunity to build in towns like Monmouth, Corvallis, Baker City and Junction City (I'm assuming these Bi-Mart locations have pharmacies, which may not be the case). Walgreen's has built plenty of stores in Oregon, but they have not blanketed all of the smaller markets.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by Super S »

kr.abs.swy wrote: October 1st, 2021, 8:25 am
Walgreen's doesn't seem to be interested in building new stores right now, but this would give them an opportunity to build in towns like Monmouth, Corvallis, Baker City and Junction City (I'm assuming these Bi-Mart locations have pharmacies, which may not be the case). Walgreen's has built plenty of stores in Oregon, but they have not blanketed all of the smaller markets.
Walgreens has closed several locations around the Portland area also. They might be seeing an opportunity in the smaller towns without some of the issues in the larger cities. It's worth noting that, even though Fred Meyer started in Oregon, they have virtually no presence in Eastern Oregon.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by kr.abs.swy »

You raise an interesting point. Fred Meyer operates in some surprisingly small towns on the Oregon coast -- specifically Brookings and Florence, and to a slightly lesser extent Newport (along with Coos Bay and Warrenton, which serve bigger areas). Towns like Baker City and LaGrande are no smaller than those coastal towns (and Pendleton and Hermiston are quite a bit bigger) and have no Fred Meyer. And a store in Ontario would provide a tax avoidance opportunity for people in Payette and Weiser (not that they don't already have that opportunity at the Ontario Walmart, which is literally across the river from Idaho).
Super S wrote: October 1st, 2021, 8:48 am
kr.abs.swy wrote: October 1st, 2021, 8:25 am
Walgreen's doesn't seem to be interested in building new stores right now, but this would give them an opportunity to build in towns like Monmouth, Corvallis, Baker City and Junction City (I'm assuming these Bi-Mart locations have pharmacies, which may not be the case). Walgreen's has built plenty of stores in Oregon, but they have not blanketed all of the smaller markets.
Walgreens has closed several locations around the Portland area also. They might be seeing an opportunity in the smaller towns without some of the issues in the larger cities. It's worth noting that, even though Fred Meyer started in Oregon, they have virtually no presence in Eastern Oregon.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by babs »

Mail order pharmacies like Express Scripts, not to mention the ones the major chains have are also killing retail pharmacy. If I can get a 90 day supply for the price of 30, why wouldn't I do that? Retail pharmacy has a place but this is taking a large chunk of the biz.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by Alpha8472 »

I work in a pharmacy and Luckily most insurance companies cover 90 day supplies of medications at retail pharmacies. Mail order is limited only to a small number of people with terrible insurance. Most people end up switching from insurances that limit you to 30 day supplies. The mail order pharmacies always have a lot of theft. These days with people more dishonest than ever, there are many stolen mail deliveries. The mail is getting more unreliable by the day. Sometimes it can take over a week to get mail order prescriptions. Many customers switch back to retail pharmacies because they like the customer service at retail pharmacies. This usually does not include the big chains such as Walgreens that understaff and put customer satisfaction as a low priority.

Walgreens is a chain that focuses on immunizations and expensive drugs for their profits. It also includes not accepting most money losing Medicaid insurances. The sad part is that many Bi-mart customers may have to switch to other pharmacies if they have some types of Medicaid.

Pharmacies are difficult to make profitable if they have a lot of Medicaid patients. However, the stores do benefit from pharmacy customers who shop in the rest of the store and bring in more sales. The Pharmacy attracts people who bring in the money to the rest of the store.
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