Walgreens to close 1200 stores, follows lead of rival drug retailers

Walgreens is planning to close around 1,200 locations, as the drugstore chain and its rivals struggle to define their role for U.S. shoppers who no longer look to them first for convenience.

Walgreens’ announcement Tuesday morning comes as rival CVS Health wraps up a three-year plan to close 900 stores and Rite Aid emerges from bankruptcy, whittled down to about 1,300 locations.

Drugstores that once snapped up prime retail space in towns and cities across the country are in retreat. They’ve been battered by shrinking prescription reimbursement, persistent theft, rising costs and consumers who have strayed to online retailers or competitors with better prices.

As the companies retract, they raise concerns in many communities about access to health care and prescriptions.

The Deerfield, Illinois company, which runs about 8,500 stores in the U.S., said in late June that it was finalizing a turnaround plan in the U.S. that might lead to hundreds of store closings.

The company said Tuesday that it will start by closing about 500 stores in its current fiscal year, which started last month.

Walgreens didn’t say where the store closings would take place. It will prioritize poor-performing stores where the property is owned by the company, or where leases are expiring.

CEO Tim Wentworth told analysts Tuesday that the majority of its stores, or about 6,000, are profitable and provide the company with a foundation to build on.

The company is taking a long look at what it sells in its stores and planning to offer more Walgreens-branded products. Walgreens also is experimenting with some smaller stores that would be less expensive to operate.

Drugstores also have been pushing to offer more care, with pharmacists diagnosing and treating the flu, monitor their customers' blood pressure, manage diabetes and quit smoking



(AP Photo Gene J. Puskar)