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 ...
The government should complete the takeover of CVS and convert 1/4 of each location to liquor/beer/reefer sales, 1/4 for gun/ammo registration, 1/4 for migrant ID and grant distribution and keep the remaining 1/4 for drug dispensaries.
They make more money front store items
Yep
Has anyone mentioned Medicare drug plan and insurance companies determine what a pharmacy makes in prescriptions
They need front store sales
Indeed big box and groceries hurt them
One of my best pals is a stand alone drug store survivor with a loyal clientele and he’ll match anyone pricing
Good friend to have
In most countries outside the USA pharmacists are gateway illness docs essentially for antibiotics and mild wounds etc
You don’t go to docs office for the flu or strep throat
Aging drug nation
Top scripts
Pain
Amphetamine salts
Anxiety meds
Suboxone
Birth control
They try to maintain 50% non scheduled scripts
You can’t make any money when the local climate changlings from the school across the street do a cellphone inspired mob rush on the shelves of the store.
Their non-pharmacy lines of personal care and convenience merchandise seem stale and slow-moving due to better prices from other venues like Walmart and Target…
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CVS recently signed a deal to put their pharmacies in Targets. The can focus on their profitable line and forget about the convenience store stuff.
seriously thinking about getting a paper divorce so we can have one spouse with the poorer income own the house and get some kind of property tax relief...
in my area, they set a very low amt of income one can get to get property tax relief, and while taxes have gone up, up, up every year, that low income amt has not changed...its not been indexed to inflation like it should have been.
According to the latest conference call, they are projecting operating income of around $6.1 billion from health insurance plans, mostly Medicare Advantage and Medicaid, about $7.1 billion from pharmacy benefit management, and about $5.6 billion from retail. That looks pretty solid to me. GAAP earnings guidance is $8.60 a share for 2023.
Especially those that act like you’re bothering them and show distain for women.
about 10 years ago, cvs absorbed long’s drugstores (*).
iirc cvs jacked up prices, reduced selection, reduced quality, and replaced most of their longtime front line employees with new hires.
maybe this is a corporate form of karma.
(*) possible exception: hawaii
bump
I’ll bet they do work hard. I have no complaints with the employees, just a complaint with the corporation, in that that socks, chips and t-shirts are more prevalent in drugstores these days than, well, drugs!
Something is seriously going wrong at CVS since they cannot fill prescriptions of common medications. It seems they have been cutoff from suppliers.
People have been saying this market is over saturated for a long time. Even before CVS’ major western expansion. Add in the fact that most insurance companies push their “customers” to mail fulfillment of prescriptions and you have a market that was going to “correct” one way or the other. Once upon a time my wife (asthmatic, lots of prescriptions) went to Walgreens 3 times a month, and we always had a “Walgreens list” going along side the grocery list. But now she’s all by mail, maybe goes to Walgreens once a quarter. We have at least twice as many drugstores in this country as any economy can support.
“CVS recently signed a deal to put their pharmacies in Targets.”
Recently? Our only CVS locations are inside of Targets and have been since the Targets were built many years ago.
“Something is seriously going wrong at CVS since they cannot fill prescriptions of common medications. It seems they have been cutoff from suppliers.”
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My husband recently had a standard medication at CVS that was on back-order for almost two weeks. Suppliers seem to only allow a certain amount of any particular drug to be ordered by a pharmacy each month. The manufacturing plant in NC damaged by a tornado might have had something to do with that. I’m not sure.
But CVS’s high prices (a lot higher than the neighboring Walmart) is not a good recipe for success. Hubby will have to eventually change his pharmacy. He has used this particular one for 50 years (it was originally a Revco Pharmacy) and just continues out of habit since all his pharma records are there.
My wife just changed to Wal-Mart from CVS today. Her common med was backordered again. Seems CVS might be having credit line issues.
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