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 ...
“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.
What is darktown?
I live in a mid sized city. We’ve got 3 CVS stores and 2 Walgreens. Plus the major grocery stores, WalMart & Target.
Highest theft no doubt
With the suburbs in certain areas close behind
Yes, the PBM and the prescription fulfillment/insurance business is BIG for them and key.
—”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.
They stopped selling cigarettes but Walgreens didn’t. I don’t smoke but when you lose a source of revenue they lose.
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.
Ah. Should have known.
My pharmacy coverage typically didn’t have problems with mom/pops. It was Walgreens. They were exempt from coverage.
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.
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.
CVS is going bankrupt printing 4-foot receipts for a $2 purchase
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.
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.
“CVS and Walgreen’s have complicated and off-putting coupon schemes.”
Exactly. Those CVS receipts make good kindling, though.
LOL see #37.
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.” "
LOL. I could wallpaper my bedroom with the paper receipts I get from CVS.
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