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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...

Walmart is closing 22 retail locations across the US this year, including four in Chicago, citing poor financial performance at each. In the latest move, Walmart confirmed Monday that it plans to close a store in Richmond, Virginia, on July 28. "We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Brook Road Neighborhood Market location," Walmart spokesperson Felicia McCranie said in an emailed statement to Insider. "We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities including our Brook Road Supercenter just two miles away and on walmart.com."...

Burger King lovers in Michigan are going to need to find a new spot to get a whopper after a franchisee announced the closure of 26 fast food locations. The fast-food restaurant closings will force 434 employees to lose their jobs, according to a letter filed with Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The franchisee called its ceasing of operations an "unforeseen business circumstance" in a March 22, Warning Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice with Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The closures will affect stores in Detroit, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, Ferndale, Flint, Highland Park, Livonia, Royal...

Last week, news broke that multiple Walmart stores across the U.S. would be closing their doors. The retailer previously said that there's no single reason for the closures, only that decisions were made following a "thorough review process," per a statement to Footwear News. According to Walmart, the stores on the chopping block are "underperforming." "We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them," Felicia McCranie, director of global communications at Walmart, said in a statement to Best Life. "We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities and...

Some suburban Chicago shoppers will soon have one less option nearby to buy groceries and other goods: Walmart. According to a Wednesday announcement from the retail giant, Walmart will including one of the company's first pick-up store in Lincolnwood, located at 6840 N. McCormick Blvd. The other two closures are planned for the Plainfield Walmart, at 12690 S. Route 59, and Homewood, at 17550 S. Halsted St. “We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Homewood, Lincolnwood, and Plainfield locations. We look forward to serving them at our other stores in...

Smoke signals from health and political officials point to closings and lockdowns in the coming weeks and months over fear of the new Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that was (unsurprisingly) detected in Los Angeles County on Thursday. Our local Health and Fear Czar, Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health, stated in a press release yesterday that "we have always known there would be more mutations, resulting in the possibility of a more dangerous variant than the Delta variant."

As small businesses complain that it has never been harder for them to hire workers according to a recent NFIB survey, many are facing growing pressure to survive. As the American economy continues to reopen, some fear it might not happen soon enough to save thousands of small businesses. Data from Alignable’s June Revenue Poll shows that 35% of all small business owners are still at risk of closing permanently by the end of the summer. Among the 3,772 small business owners in the 10 days ended June 1, Alignable’s June Revenue Poll showed a myriad of factors – including...

The World Health Organisation said it is in ongoing contact with authorities in China over an unidentified outbreak of viral pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan, amid concern it may have been transmitted from animals. Wuhan health authorities on Tuesday said 27 people – most of them stallholders at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market – had been treated in hospital, with seven said to be in serious condition. Pathology tests were under way to try and identify the virus, officials said. Hong Kong medical authorities were also on alert.

Polls across Chicago opened Tuesday morning amid a cloud of concerns about how the coronavirus pandemic could affect voter turnout. Days before Election Day, efforts to contain the virus escalated in Illinois with the announcement of schools temporarily shuttering and restaurants shifting to only take out or delivery services. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and the Cook County Clerk scrambled to find new election judges after many opted out of the role because of COVID-19. About 850 election judges, or about 10% of the people who had signed up for the role, told Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough’s office...

According to the restaurant chain, it will be closing down the 500 stores as it looks for the best locations for its business. Subway notes that it will also be relocating some of its stores in an effort to maximize its potential in the U.S. Subway doesn’t yet have a list of the 500 U.S. stores that it will be closing. However, the closures also may not be a surprise to those following the company. It has been struggling to overcome its competition and closed over 800 U.S. restaurants in 2017. While 500 Subway locations closing down may seem like...

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness made sure to release this announcement at the end of last week: "Several media outlets have reported that UNRWA intends to close its headquarters in Gaza. These reports are false. UNRWA HQ Gaza is not closing. The Agency affirms categorically that there are no plans to do so and staff are not being let go." Puzzlingly, the panicky announcement seemed to have been circulated even more widely than the alleged reports of the UNRWA closure. In any event, Gunness took the opportunity to state that "UNRWA is fully committed to maintaining its presence in the Gaza...

Major retailers in the United States are shutting down hundreds of stores, and shoppers are reporting alarmingly bare shelves in many retail locations that are still open all over the country. It appears that the retail apocalypse that made so many headlines in 2015 has gone to an entirely new level as we enter 2016. As economic activity slows down and Internet retailers capture more of the market, brick and mortar retailers are cutting their losses. This is especially true in areas that are on the lower portion of the income scale. In impoverished urban centers all over the nation,...

BRANDON, Fla. - Walmart stores across the country suddenly closed Monday, supposedly as a result of plumbing problems. Now a Hillsborough County commissioner who has worked closely with the company for years says he has plenty of questions. In Midland, Texas, which, until Monday, was home to one of the 10 busiest Walmart stores in the country, City Building Official Steve Thorpe told the I-Team his plumbing inspector was sent away when he visited the closed store and offered to help secure permits. While the company claimed to have an average of 100 to 150 plumbing issues a year in...

So far, in 2013, 44 abortion clinics have closed. Due to new state laws and improved inspections, abortion clinics have been forced to close down in record numbers. 42 of those offered surgical abortions, while the other two offered chemical abortions. For Abby Johnson, it takes on a special meaning. When the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas closed, it was the end of a long circle for Johnson, who once ran that abortion clinic before her conscience got the better of her and she left Planned Parenthood for Coalition for Life.

Members of the New York State Nurses Association gathered at the Capitol on Saturday to protest the closure of community hospitals. The group also opposes a plan for an "experimental" for-profit hospital pilot program laid out in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget proposal. The protest, in front of the state Department of Health headquarters in the Corning Tower, comes on the heels of a vote earlier this month to close Brooklyn's cash-strapped Long Island College Hospital, which is run by SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and the news that Brooklyn's bankrupt Interfaith Medical Center will merge with another hospital. ... New York...

Michigan: Detroit Closing 50 ParksDetroit will close nearly half of its parks and will reduce maintenance and services at dozens of others after the City Council passed on a deal that would have had the state operate the city’s Belle Isle park, Mayor Dave Bing said on Friday. Closing 50 of 107 parks will allow the city to keep running Belle Isle, a 985-acre park in the Detroit River, after the Council declined to vote on Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal. Mr. Snyder’s offer called for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to run Belle Isle as a state park, but...

Gov. Pat Quinn today moved to lay off more than 1,900 state workers and close seven state facilities as part of a plan to cut the state budget.The governor sought to blame state lawmakers for giving him a state budget that was $2.2 billion less than he wanted. "Members of the General Assembly cannot run away from what they did in the spring," Quinn said. "Some of them patted themselves on the back for it." "It's time for a rendezvous with reality," he added. SNIP------------- The administration is seeking to close mental health centers in southwest suburban Tinley Park, Rockford...

WGN Postal service may shut down for winter WGN News 3:03 PM CDT, September 5, 2011 Without emergency funding the postal service may have to shut down for the winter. The U.S Postal Service faces a $9 billion dollar deficit. The New York Times reports the agency doesn't have enough money to pay its bills and a $5.5 billion dollar payment is due this month. Possible cost cutting measures include eliminating Saturday delivery, closing up to 3700 post offices and laying off 120,000 workers. A congressional hearing on the matter is set for Tuesday.

Foreclosures, plant closings, offshored jobs, underwater mortgages, miserable rates of unemployment, stagnating incomes: Is there any end to the woes of the struggling American middle? Apparently not, because now comes news of a trend guaranteeing trouble ahead for the more than half of the nation that make up the moderately educated and moderately earning middle — even if the economy improves. That seismic shift, outlined in a new report from the National Marriage Project and the Institute for American Values, is towards more divorce, more out of wedlock births and, ipso facto, fewer kids with a hopeful future. Family breakdown,...

Two stories about Atlanta - Parents Plan to Fight School Closings How school closure impacted a community