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CVS is permanently closing hundreds of stores
The Street ^ | Jena Warburton

Posted on 09/26/2023 4:19:19 AM PDT by CFW

It's no secret that U.S. drugstore landscape has been consolidating at a jarring pace now that the pandemic has passed.

Rite Aid (RAD) - has been reportedly toying with the possibility of filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy and liquidating many of its stores. It currently has some $3.3 billion in debt. The proposed deal would permanently shutter 400 to 500 of the chain's current 2,100 stores and hand them over to creditors or other interested buyers.

With the the pandemic now firmly behind us and brick-and-mortar retail at a crawling recovery pace compared with more robust corners of the market, drugstores have been ripe for change and, perhaps inevitably, consolidation.

Walgreens (WBA) - recently parted ways with its intrepid covid-era chief executive, Rosalind Brewer, who abruptly left on Sept. 1. The drugstore is now seeking someone with "deep health-care experience to lead in today’s dynamic environment," according to Executive Chairman Stefano Pessina.

It's clear that if a U.S. drugstore isn't implementing change, change is being forced on it, and more often than not that spells trouble. And that's before accounting for the sharp spike in shoplifting and other retail crime, which has cut deeply into drugstores' bottom lines and forced some to either shutter or chain up frequently stolen goods.

(Excerpt) Read more at thestreet.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: bankruptcy; chapter11; closings; crime; cvs; economy; layoffs; rad; retailcrime; riteaid; shoplifting; walgreens; wba
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To: CFW

“Walgreens (WBA) - recently parted ways with its intrepid covid-era chief executive, Rosalind Brewer”

Looks like that diversity hire didn’t pan out for them. +1 for merit based hiring.


21 posted on 09/26/2023 5:05:00 AM PDT by beef (The pendulum will not swing back. It will snap back. Hard.)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

What is darktown?


22 posted on 09/26/2023 5:08:42 AM PDT by joesbucks (It's called love-bombing. Claiming he's saving the world. This is a cult. Just back away. )
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To: CFW

I live in a mid sized city. We’ve got 3 CVS stores and 2 Walgreens. Plus the major grocery stores, WalMart & Target.


23 posted on 09/26/2023 5:09:53 AM PDT by joesbucks (It's called love-bombing. Claiming he's saving the world. This is a cult. Just back away. )
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

Highest theft no doubt

With the suburbs in certain areas close behind


24 posted on 09/26/2023 5:10:58 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: proxy_user

Yes, the PBM and the prescription fulfillment/insurance business is BIG for them and key.


25 posted on 09/26/2023 5:11:35 AM PDT by joesbucks (It's called love-bombing. Claiming he's saving the world. This is a cult. Just back away. )
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To: Chuzzlewit

—”CVS has 2 or 3 aisles of products related to health. “

That matches my local CVS well because they only have two employees, both working at a steady pace. Not joking.

One pharmacist and one clerk in front and the drive-through.
They work hard.


26 posted on 09/26/2023 5:13:32 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ( "The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: joesbucks
Darktown is where they hold the The Darktown Strutter's Ball.

27 posted on 09/26/2023 5:13:48 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (Lord, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: Jonty30

They stopped selling cigarettes but Walgreens didn’t. I don’t smoke but when you lose a source of revenue they lose.


28 posted on 09/26/2023 5:14:58 AM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
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To: joesbucks
In my county we still have a couple independent pharmacies. I only patronize them. My health insurance company is always trying to make me switch to "their" pharmacies, and I tell them to bugger off.

My pharmacist knows me by sight. He knows my medical history. He gives me good advice. He doesn't have to look in the computer.

29 posted on 09/26/2023 5:19:47 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (Lord, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

Ah. Should have known.


30 posted on 09/26/2023 5:20:13 AM PDT by joesbucks (It's called love-bombing. Claiming he's saving the world. This is a cult. Just back away. )
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

My pharmacy coverage typically didn’t have problems with mom/pops. It was Walgreens. They were exempt from coverage.


31 posted on 09/26/2023 5:22:10 AM PDT by joesbucks (It's called love-bombing. Claiming he's saving the world. This is a cult. Just back away. )
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To: CFW

It seems like Dollar General would be a good place to have a pharmacy. CVS and Walgreens in town are starting to look like a DG.


32 posted on 09/26/2023 5:23:51 AM PDT by Bernard ("No matter where you go, there you are." (Buckaroo Banzai))
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To: proxy_user

The benefit manager part of the business may be the only revenue positive part of the business. If the retail isnt selling enough at a profit to offset shrinkage in the complex urban environment, the only profit is the rent on the Rx in the back.

Property taxes must eat very well. The only retail that isnt already gone in some zip codes is these convience stores anchored by a Rx rental space.

A Stroad corner, with 2 gas stations and 2 drug stores. The gas stations are gross sales over 6 million a year, the drug stores may do 2.5 gross per year before the Rx. Medicare/Medicade Rx is done at very slim margins, but is gross sales to that taxing authority. The local taxing authority is going to slap taxes on Walgreens and CVS as if they were doing 6M in sales. With prepay, gas theft is the same percentage as CC fraud, CC chargebacks may be 3% at worse. CVS retail shrink might be 10% of gross, add 3% in CC chargebacks, add another big ticket for being the target of slip and fall lawsuits from the broken hip crowd collecting their medicals.

You got to sell a lot of orange pops at $2 to make the profits to support property tax of a 12 wide isle store. The dollar stores pack everything tighter and dont build or stay open where inventory shrinkage is going to happen.

After working the distributions center of a walgreens before the barcode sort era, the issues in legacy distribution are insane. The amount of time spent breaking down and shipping back out first isle facepaints was beyond $1 per vial. Makeup suppliers should direct ship and inventory control that fiasco of a isle. Like Cola and Bread, it is not for the retailer to deal with on a daily basis with the losses they experience.


33 posted on 09/26/2023 5:25:41 AM PDT by protoconservative (Been Conservative Before You Were Born )
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To: CFW

CVS is going bankrupt printing 4-foot receipts for a $2 purchase


34 posted on 09/26/2023 5:28:46 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (Fraud vitiates everything)
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To: Bernard

Walgreens in town are starting to look like a DG

You will note the typical DG layout has the front door as a choke point. The front a walgreens is electric wheelchair and shopping cart accessable, wide like a casino entrance. DG just puts the rows tighter and the entrance/exit in a tight spot. The in door and the out door are the same door. If they need a loss prevention agent, one can deal with a DG.

All these directly affect the loss ratio. You will note that DG does not really stock anything with a wholesale price of 20 dollars and most of the inventory can have a 50% markup and still be at target/walmarts daily price.

DG is the stuff that Amazon cannot afford to ship you at the price of prime membership. Soap, Detergent, Paper on Rolls, tiny portion size over the counter stuff. Cold medicin is the only thing at DG I would suspect is a theft target, at at mine it is directly in front of the cashier.

Dollar general also gets the benefit of the doubt when it comes to taxing authorities. Expanded quickly into some pretty pitiful center of block retail locations in my community.


35 posted on 09/26/2023 5:36:45 AM PDT by protoconservative (Been Conservative Before You Were Born )
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To: tuffydoodle

Amen! The people at the pharmacy desk in CVS in my town ARE THE REASON I pass them up and drive another 10 minutes in traffic to HEB.

They are RUDE to the 9th power. They do not give a damn how long you wait or WHAT your problem is. And, they pride themselves in their arrogance and condescension.

It’s sort of amazing in that the people at the front general check out register are as polite as they can be.

And, because they (CVS) were/are so close, I tried them (their pharmacy) out at least a half dozen times before I gave up and started driving the extra miles. They could be better now but I’m stuck with HEB now who is always courteous and responsive.


36 posted on 09/26/2023 5:52:17 AM PDT by Cen-Tejas
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To: Rockingham

“CVS and Walgreen’s have complicated and off-putting coupon schemes.”

Exactly. Those CVS receipts make good kindling, though.


37 posted on 09/26/2023 5:54:33 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

LOL see #37.


38 posted on 09/26/2023 5:54:57 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: joesbucks
"What is darktown?"

A short history of … “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (Shelton Brooks, 1915)

"...the song was inspired by an annual ball in Chicago, Illinois, that was “a kind of modern equivalent of the medieval carnivals of misrule, financed by wealthy society folk but with a guest list of pimps and prostitutes.” "

Darktown Strutter's Ball by Ella Fitzgerald

39 posted on 09/26/2023 5:56:26 AM PDT by guest7
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

LOL. I could wallpaper my bedroom with the paper receipts I get from CVS.


40 posted on 09/26/2023 6:00:20 AM PDT by IndyTiger
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