CVS to close 900 stores

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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: January 20th, 2023, 8:53 am

The only other Longs store that was ever in Southwest Washington was in Salmon Creek, next to Albertsons. It was not acquired by Rite Aid and is now a Goodwill store. Ironically, Rite Aid once had a store in Hazel Dell which was a former PayLess. Rite Aid had plans for a new store at one point, but abandoned them, and closed the existing store a few years later with no replacement.

Rite Aid actually has a very weak presence in Vancouver, with only two locations.

There was a Rite Aid somewhere up north that still had a Pay 'N Save interior for quite some time after becoming Rite Aid, in either Kent or Des Moines. I am not sure of the exact location though, or if it is still open.
The poor presence of Rite Aid (or Payless) in Vancouver, WA is a bit strange. I am wondering why their presence is so limited. Is it due to the age/size of the Safeway units around the area not being built with a drug co-anchor?

I remember that store with the Pay N Save interior and thought I had pictures of it, but cannot find the pictures. I think it was directly on Pacific Highway and the front of it faced west. 26200 Pacific Highway South appears to be the store.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: January 20th, 2023, 10:38 pm
Super S wrote: January 20th, 2023, 8:53 am

The only other Longs store that was ever in Southwest Washington was in Salmon Creek, next to Albertsons. It was not acquired by Rite Aid and is now a Goodwill store. Ironically, Rite Aid once had a store in Hazel Dell which was a former PayLess. Rite Aid had plans for a new store at one point, but abandoned them, and closed the existing store a few years later with no replacement.

Rite Aid actually has a very weak presence in Vancouver, with only two locations.

There was a Rite Aid somewhere up north that still had a Pay 'N Save interior for quite some time after becoming Rite Aid, in either Kent or Des Moines. I am not sure of the exact location though, or if it is still open.
The poor presence of Rite Aid (or Payless) in Vancouver, WA is a bit strange. I am wondering why their presence is so limited. Is it due to the age/size of the Safeway units around the area not being built with a drug co-anchor?

I remember that store with the Pay N Save interior and thought I had pictures of it, but cannot find the pictures. I think it was directly on Pacific Highway and the front of it faced west. 26200 Pacific Highway South appears to be the store.
That one is the one I thought it was also, but, after looking on Google Maps, I wasn't sure, it seemed like the shopping center was a bit more run down than those pictures show. The store looks like it has closed recently and has some kind of barricades on the windows making it hard to tell if it ever was remodeled.

The two original PayLess stores in Vancouver were in Hazel Dell near 78th Street (now a Ross) and in Orchards (now Bi-Mart) PayLess built a replacement store nearby (along with Albertsons which was next to PayLess in the old location) but Rite Aid eventually closed that location. Albertsons moved to Padden Parkway about 10 years after the new Orchards store was built, which eventually also closed.

PayLess started building a store right before Rite Aid bought them out at 136th & Mill Plain, which opened as Rite Aid, and remains open.

Rite Aid has one newer store on 162nd Ave.

Hi-School Pharmacy had a strong presence for many years but eventually the Vancouver locations were sold to Walgreens, which was already building new stores in the area.

Vancouver seems like it could have potential for CVS to operate standalone stores with a relatively weak Rite Aid presence.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: January 21st, 2023, 5:24 am

PayLess started building a store right before Rite Aid bought them out at 136th & Mill Plain, which opened as Rite Aid, and remains open.

Rite Aid has one newer store on 162nd Ave.

Hi-School Pharmacy had a strong presence for many years but eventually the Vancouver locations were sold to Walgreens, which was already building new stores in the area.

Vancouver seems like it could have potential for CVS to operate standalone stores with a relatively weak Rite Aid presence.
The current new CVS Stores are under 10k square feet and hardly have any merchandise. They are nothing to get excited about and hardly offer any merchandise. Grocery stores have a better mix of drugstore items than these newer CVS units.

The merchandising in these CVS 10k square foot stores is also odd. There is almost no seasonal, almost no liquor. They abbreviate various sets throughout the store. The merchandising makes no sense. For instance they have canned tomato paste, but no tomato sauce. They have "hot honey" but no plain honey. I have been to smaller CVS Stores in downtowns/tourist areas over the years and found them to be well merchandised but the recent small store openings and a couple of Health Hub conversions which resulted in cutting about half of the SKUs in the stores in Reno are really bad. They just hack away SKUs with no rhyme or reason.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by buckguy »

storewanderer wrote: January 21st, 2023, 11:12 pm
Super S wrote: January 21st, 2023, 5:24 am

PayLess started building a store right before Rite Aid bought them out at 136th & Mill Plain, which opened as Rite Aid, and remains open.

Rite Aid has one newer store on 162nd Ave.

Hi-School Pharmacy had a strong presence for many years but eventually the Vancouver locations were sold to Walgreens, which was already building new stores in the area.

Vancouver seems like it could have potential for CVS to operate standalone stores with a relatively weak Rite Aid presence.
The current new CVS Stores are under 10k square feet and hardly have any merchandise. They are nothing to get excited about and hardly offer any merchandise. Grocery stores have a better mix of drugstore items than these newer CVS units.

The merchandising in these CVS 10k square foot stores is also odd. There is almost no seasonal, almost no liquor. They abbreviate various sets throughout the store. The merchandising makes no sense. For instance they have canned tomato paste, but no tomato sauce. They have "hot honey" but no plain honey. I have been to smaller CVS Stores in downtowns/tourist areas over the years and found them to be well merchandised but the recent small store openings and a couple of Health Hub conversions which resulted in cutting about half of the SKUs in the stores in Reno are really bad. They just hack away SKUs with no rhyme or reason.
The newest near me is the familiar 13-14K sf prototype. They've never not had smaller stores (even as new builds)---there are a couple of those nearby. It may be a legacy of Revco, whose purpose built stores were small but had a different mix (limited non-HBA merchandise).

They've gradually seemed to be cutting back on the seasonal merchandise---I've noticed this over the last 2-3 years, although the store closest to me got suck with Christmas wrapping paper that they're still trying to sell. So much seasonal stuff, esp. for the holidays, gets marked down, that they must figure it's more profitable to start out with less, but that probably requires more sophisticated buying and more tailoring to individual stores in order to work in practice. Walgreens seems to be sticking with the status quo when it comes to seasonal items, but I think they've always carried more of this stuff than CVS.

I've never understood how drug store chains deal with liquor--it comes and goes in some chains and in some regions. I would think it's only worth it if you can do large volumes, given the SKUs and the regulatory red tape.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by jamcool »

There are several Walgreens in Sun City (AZ) that still have full liquor departments.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: January 22nd, 2023, 6:42 am

The newest near me is the familiar 13-14K sf prototype. They've never not had smaller stores (even as new builds)---there are a couple of those nearby. It may be a legacy of Revco, whose purpose built stores were small but had a different mix (limited non-HBA merchandise).

They've gradually seemed to be cutting back on the seasonal merchandise---I've noticed this over the last 2-3 years, although the store closest to me got suck with Christmas wrapping paper that they're still trying to sell. So much seasonal stuff, esp. for the holidays, gets marked down, that they must figure it's more profitable to start out with less, but that probably requires more sophisticated buying and more tailoring to individual stores in order to work in practice. Walgreens seems to be sticking with the status quo when it comes to seasonal items, but I think they've always carried more of this stuff than CVS.

I've never understood how drug store chains deal with liquor--it comes and goes in some chains and in some regions. I would think it's only worth it if you can do large volumes, given the SKUs and the regulatory red tape.
The current batch of 13k-14k square foot ones they build (we have one of these in Reno) going forward are the Health Hub units. In that case the building is larger but that is to house the medical services being provided through their Health Hub program and allow a little more "space" within the store. They are also hoping to add additional medical services in the future such as dental and optical and they are in some cases building spaces for those in these new stores but not yet offering those services immediately. But otherwise the little 10k square foot prototype is the forward model and it is a complete joke for front end. They may as well cut even more SKUs, the store in its current form with such odd product sets, many out of stocks (theft I suspect, since they have one self checkout and no employee up front- "ring bell for service"- it is a waste of space). Twice now when I've gone up to pay the self checkout has another transaction on it but nobody there and no items there- one time it was for over $200. The employee came up from who knows where and just did a void and told me to go ahead and ring up my items. I commented was that theft and the employee said I don't know I am the only one here I can't be everywhere in the store and got really defensive.

CVS has basically given up on the front of the store. Staffing is cut to almost nothing, pricing is absurdly high, and product mix is poor. Neatness and cleanliness has improved in my area but I think that is due to a new district manager and we will see how long that lasts. At this point they are running a convenience store operation and nothing more. They have quit running a paper ad circular, they Extra Bucks program is falling apart- I used to get personalized coupons every Sunday, now I get the same coupons every Sunday for about the past five months, like clockwork (I may use 2-3 of them a month now), like their system that does personalized offers is just frozen/broken and months have gone by and nobody has fixed it. I have talked to other people who are having the same odd situation with the Sunday CVS personalized coupons.

CVS definitely has less seasonal merchandise than Walgreens or Rite Aid but also seems to sell the least. They don't run much in the way of price promotions during the seasonal period and their display and presentation is terrible. Walgreens displays the seasonal stuff in a double wide aisle and watching the flow of customers in a Walgreens you will see many people cross that aisle when going between the pharmacy and the entrance/exit. A week ago, CVS finally went to 90% off on Christmas items and some stores (a couple of larger former Longs with 3-4 long seasonal aisles that were stocked full) I went into looked like they were fully stocked and hadn't sold more than an item here and there until the 90% off started.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by ClownLoach »

CVS at the "Iron Triangle" in Long Beach, CA has abruptly disappeared. This was a Longs previously. The location is the busiest intersection in Long Beach and directly across the street from the US Naval Hospital/VA Hospital (7th St/Bellflower Blvd/Pacific Coast Highway intersection) as well as Cal State University Long Beach (largest public university campus in the US). The Ralphs Fresh Fare that used to be in this center closed about a decade ago and was replaced by a Target express which didn't have the CVS pharmacy inside because they were across the parking lot. I don't think there is much room to add the pharmacy into the Target. Ironically the nearest Rite Aid was the Naples store that closed a few months ago. This CVS just got remodeled into their "plain white" decor and just got the new "heart" logo sign.

Despite this bordering the two best neighborhoods in Long Beach I would suspect theft and homeless problems closed this store. The shopping center was always one of the best maintained in Long Beach until it changed hands shortly after Ralphs upgraded to Fresh Fare with a thorough, gutted to the wall studs remodel. The new ownership eliminated the security patrols. Once this happened panhandlers invaded the center and would run up to every car as it parked to beg for money. Many homeless people living in their cars started parking in the center and staying 24/7. The clientele would not accept this and quickly abandoned the center despite Ralphs being there for many decades. Ralphs quickly remodeled the store a mile south into Fresh Fare and closed Iron Triangle. Target is also struggling with theft and installed a very unusual single sliding door entrance and exit. Target does not allow public restroom use which I've never seen anywhere else, and they have what appear to be corporate made "no public restroom" signs. A few years ago Target took the unusual step of physically enlarging the Bellflower Blvd. store a couple of miles North by knocking down the former garden center and expanding the sales floor including a second entrance; the store is now about the same size as a ex Greatland. I suspect that they will close the Iron Triangle express store as soon as possible under their lease. Despite the fact that the center is full of very busy takeout restaurants due to the location by the CSULB campus I think the new owners of the center will probably try to claim it is unsuitable for retail and needs to be replaced by high density apartments. They ruined this nice center by removing the security and ensuring it became a homeless encampment across the street from million dollar plus homes in Belmont Heights.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by storewanderer »

It definitely seems the remodels of CVS Stores do not mean a store is safe from being closed.

The only unremodeled CVS in Reno area at this point is the one in Sun Valley. Not a great part of town and is perhaps not on the side of the street it should be on to capture "on the way home" traffic to a larger subdivision above Sun Valley, was a reasonably busy store when Rite Aid opened it, sort of died under Longs but really died under CVS. What is funny is that CVS put in 2 self checkouts so I am not sure it is lost. But business seems very slow, they have removed multiple aisles, and the front end of this store is sad. It operates limited hours. The building is in pretty bad shape and landscaping was last maintained outside under Longs. Walgreens corporate wanted a store added in Sun Valley (since Rite Aid was there) until they sent regional management and corporate management to do a drive around at a couple potential sites. The idea was tabled real fast after that drive around.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

It was ignored by news reports,but the former orangevale Payless/Rite Aid/Long's has now disappeared.It recently was delisted from the official CVS locator and has already been marked as closed in both Yelp and Google Maps.It only got a cheapo Long's transition remodel (only the aisle markers and wall graphics,never got countertop checkouts or a single nanometer of the infamous carpet),and was showing signs of wear (clusters missing tiles)as evidenced by photos posted this past August by a Google Maps contributor.Can't determine whether the perimeter mirrors were original or were installed under Long's.Of the thirty something Payless locations that RAD sold to Long's in August 1999,that is the sixth that has ceased to operate as a drugstore,while San Jose prospect was merely replaced by a freestanding CVS nearby a few years ago.The only pharmacy left in orangevale proper is now the pharmacy inside that undersized Walmart supercenter across Hazel.

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For your life,Thrifty and Payless have got it.
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Re: CVS to close 900 stores

Post by storewanderer »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: February 15th, 2023, 7:25 pm It was ignored by news reports,but the former orangevale Payless/Rite Aid/Long's has now disappeared.It recently was delisted from the official CVS locator and has already been marked as closed in both Yelp and Google Maps.It only got a cheapo Long's transition remodel (only the aisle markers and wall graphics,never got countertop checkouts or a single nanometer of the infamous carpet),and was showing signs of wear (clusters missing tiles)as evidenced by photos posted this past August by a Google Maps contributor.Can't determine whether the perimeter mirrors were original or were installed under Long's.Of the thirty something Payless locations that RAD sold to Long's in August 1999,that is the sixth that has ceased to operate as a drugstore,while San Jose prospect was merely replaced by a freestanding CVS nearby a few years ago.The only pharmacy left in orangevale proper is now the pharmacy inside that undersized Walmart supercenter across Hazel.

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What is the problem with that intersection at Orangevale? That Orangevale CVS/Longs/Payless was once a 24 hour store and a high volume operation. Walgreens had opened across the street and was also a 24 hour store and that store also closed some years ago. Wal Mart pharmacies aren't so high volume that they would take out what appeared to be good volume CVS and Walgreens units. It is like something really changed with traffic patterns in that area or prescription demand.
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