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Nearly 30 percent of US pharmacies closed between 2010 and 2021, according to a new study in the health-policy publication Health Affairs. The research, led by University of California Berkeley assistant professor Jenny S. Guadamuz and colleagues, analyzed data from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs, county health statistics, and ZIP Code demographic surveys. Of the 88,930 retail pharmacies operating in 2010, almost one-third shuttered by 2021, with those in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods disproportionately affected. Independent pharmacies were hit hardest, with closures occurring at a higher rate than chain pharmacies regardless of location or market conditions. Black...

New York City is losing drugstores as retail theft continues to surge. Gotham has logged 21,578 shoplifting complaints this year through May 12, up 5% from the 20,552 thefts during the same period last year. Manhattan has seen 8,896 incidents of retail theft alone. Crime is so rampant, national chains like Target, CVS and Walgreens are closing locations and tempering expansion plans. Target announced at the end of last year the closure of nine stores across four states, including one in Harlem, due to theft.

Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 US locations after filing for bankruptcy.. CVS is set to close the doors on 900 of its stores by the end of 2024.. Walgreens will shutter 150 stores by summer 2024 - leaving millions in 'pharmacy deserts' . The nation's largest drugstore chains, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens, will shutter more than 1,500 stores, leaving millions of Americans without access to healthcare in 'pharmacy deserts.' Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 US locations after they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month. The pharmacy chain...

Please check this Twitter thread. There are a great many comments about the shortages and pictures of empty shelves in various parts of the country. Very interesting that so many see this as "on purpose" and a way to control us.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. agreed to buy Rite Aid Corp. for about $9.4 billion, in a move that would create a drugstore giant at a time when companies in nearly every corner of the health-care industry are seeking to gain advantage from bulking up. Walgreens agreed to pay $9 a share in cash for Rite Aid, offering a 48% premium to Rite Aid's closing price Monday. Rite Aid's stock rose 43% to $8.67 Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported on the deal talks.

The family-run drugstore on Main Street has been dying for decades. Now, the big national chain pharmacies—which helped push those family operations to the brink of extinction—are being surpassed in terms of total locations by dollar stores. What does this say about how people shop nowadays? And about the state of the economy? One of the hottest retail trends in recent years has been the rise of the dollar store. During a period when many retailers have struggled as a result of consumers scaling back, dollar stores boomed for obvious reasons—one way consumers cut expenses was by spending more time...

Recent studies indicate that the number of fathers are unknowingly raising children that aren’t their own; roughly 2% of all fathers in the study are unaware that their wives gave birth to a child conceived with another man. A pretty small number to be sure, but 2% of the roughly 4 million fathers in New York city works out to 80,000 disappointed, angry and humiliated dudes walking around America’s largest city. Why is this suddenly relevant? Because NY drug store chain Duane Reade is now selling do-it-yourself paternity kits. Great. According to CBSNews New York: The do-it-yourself kits are

Employer health plans across the country are forcing millions of consumers to change their drug-buying habits. And one side effect could be the decline of the neighborhood drugstore. Instead of picking up their medicines at a local pharmacy, growing numbers of consumers will be required - starting this month when new health plans take effect - to buy dozens of widely used drugs, like insulin for diabetes or Lipitor to lower cholesterol, by mail order. Employers and the companies that manage prescription drug insurance coverage favor mail-order pharmacies because they can get lucrative rebates and deep discounts from drug makers...

Drugstores Sue Makers Over Prices SAN FRANCISCO, August 27, 2004 Nineteen California pharmacies filed a lawsuit in state court Thursday accusing the world's largest pharmaceutical companies of conspiring to inflate U.S. drug prices. The pharmacies accuse the 15 drug makers of illegally conspiring to charge inflated prices in the United States while barring pharmacies from buying the makers' drugs at lower prices outside the country. "Each of the companies, all of them, are doing exactly the same thing: They're charging substantially more in the United States than they are elsewhere," Joseph Alioto, the San Francisco attorney representing the pharmacies, told...

Nipple-Free Zone A man's bare chest is too racy for Walgreens. BY AINA HUNTER When Calvin Johnson photographed merrymakers at a Fourth of July party hosted by gay activist-businessman-philanthropist Gregg Ammell and his partner, David Laws, Johnson had no idea it would be the last of the couple's fabulous parties. Weeks later, Ammell suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving his old friends with nothing but good memories. After the funeral, Johnson picked up the film he'd dropped off at a Lakewood Walgreens. Ammell's large back yard was full of sun that sweltering afternoon. In the midst of the party, he...