CVS Health to close hundreds of drugstores

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By TOM MURPHY

CVS Health will close hundreds of drugstores over the next three years, as the retail giant adjusts to changing customer needs and converts to new store formats.

The company said Thursday that it will close about 300 stores a year for the next three years, nearly a tenth of its roughly 10,000 retail locations. as it reduces store count density in some places.

The company said Thursday that it has been evaluating population changes, customer buying patterns and future health needs to “ensure it has the right kinds of stores in the right locations.”

A statement from the company didn’t say where the store closures would take place.



Vehicles are parked in front of a CVS Pharmacy in Mount Lebanon, Pa., on Monday May 3, 2021. CVS Health will close hundreds of drugstores over the next three years, as the retail giant adjusts to changing customer needs and converts to new store formats. The company said Thursday, Nov. 18, that it will close about 300 stores a year for the next three years as it looks to reduce store count density in some locations. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-6e0e68ccec2db3a1422d67ff1e7e44aa

[MuseRider]

1. I hope they do not totally convert to what the population

wants or our pharmacies will be filled with nothing but Ivermectin.

[jimfields33]

15. They over built to the point of saturation.

This is not a surprise. Good move on CVS. This doesn’t have to do with stopping cigarettes sales which some on Twitter have shouted.

[Auggie]

16. Yes --- over saturation. I dislike this franchise though. Remind me of Walmart.

[marybourg]

38. Ensuring that they drove independent pharmacies out of business.

[zentrum]

51. That's exactly what they did.

Ugly as hell too. Ruined many great architectural spots in New York.

[paleotn]

46. Agreed.

Old story of expansion getting out of hand.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. They picked off prime real estate here and there

Their stores are in my opinion overpriced. They're little more than a pharmacy, a drug store, and a mini-mart under one roof. Time was they had nurses for immunizations and quick look-see in stores. Then that service retreated to one store in a dense population area. To me it was an obsession of locating in every neighborhood. Didn't anyone think to figure out if the traffic would support the store?

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

21. Yep, real estate holdings/hedges...

... up here in Sioux Falls, SD we have new fangled car washes all over the place, some right across the street from each other in new development areas.

I have tried utilizing the CVS/Target for my Rx needs, but found their prices outrageous compared to Walmart, where nearly all of my Rx's the past year have been FREE or $10 for a special plastic surgery/antibiotic cream (tailbone issues from a bad fall 30+ years ago).

[SWBTATTReg]

3. One of my family members is required to use CVS for their medical stuff, prescriptions, etc.

and another family member just went through Walgreen's closing multiple stores in the STLMO region, thus far, their store of choice was left alone/still remains open. Makes it kind of hard for family members to rely on their medical choices in various things if they are forced to pick and choose among undesirable stores (located too far away, located in 'bad' neighborhoods, etc.

I do agree that sometimes it does look like these retailers (CVS, Walgreen's, etc.) did overly concentrate/had too many stores, Walgreen's was a good example here in STLMO, I had five of the stores located roughly 3-4 miles all from my house...kind of an overkill but nice to have the choices.

[Pinback]

4. After pushing out a great many locally owned pharmacies.

It would be nice if some of those returned, but I suspect not many can compete with the big chains any more.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. That happened here too

Old time hypothecary, carried every custom formulation. It was independent and then owned by Cardinal Health I think. It was sold to Rite-Aide I think I read. The owner grew old, was sick, and had no choice.

[pidge]

27. We had 2 independent pharmacies open in my area,MA, in the last 3 years. They do quite well.

[Sgent]

35. Especially because

CVS and Walgreens own 2 of the 3 largest PBMs which decide what independents get paid by fiat.

[Girard442]

5. The service at my local CVS has deteriorated. Wonder if the staff knows they're on the list.

[unc70]

7. CVS also owns Aetna

[Sherman A1]

8. The Baby Boom is aging out

And they don’t need as many stores. Cutting the overhead seems reasonable and their stock is up $1.90 right now.

Decades ago I read a trade article on the then Walgreens expansion. It was specifically targeted at the aging baby boom with cookie cutter stores of 14,500 square feet on a corner location. Those stores and the CVSs are probably reaching the end of their service lives and will be needing rehabs or will be facing increasing maintenance costs. Neither company will cut off their noses to spite their faces and do things to lose sales.

[Steelrolled]

10. I don't know

I would think that each succeeding generation takes more drugs than the previous, but that is just speculation.

Another big factor in my view is that every large grocery store and some department stores now have pharmacies.

[Sherman A1]

11. Yes, many grocery or mass merchandisers have pharmacies

And many of those are run by CVS. In our local area they acquired the pharmacy operations of a major local grocery chain which put a goodly number of their stand alone stores within blocks or across the street from the newly acquired locations. It is only a matter of time before something gives and one location or the other is closed.

[womanofthehills]

43. Don't forget about Walmart

A large percentage of the population spends lots of time at Walmart. They can shop while waiting.

[Auggie]

17. Bet prescriptions by mail are undercutting them

[melm00se]

24. They already have a division that does that

CVS Caremark

[Auggie]

32. Thanks. Another reason they don't need as many retail stores.

[imavoter]

52. I'm required to use Caremark or CVS

I refuse to do by mail, as they had messed up so many times.
I hate CVS, but I can go pick up when ready.

[Auggie]

53. Yeah. I tried the mail. They got the order wrong.

I was hold 55 minutes trying to fix it.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

60. Never gonna get meds by mail.

I prefer to do the 4 minute walk to the pharmacy and get my meds there.

I can ask the pharmacist questions etc. And they know who I am. I like my pharmacist.

Besides De Joy fucked up the post office. I hope his trumper ass is out of a job soon and kicked to the curb.

[Fla Dem]

33. There's a CVS, Walgreen's, a stand alone pharmacy and a Publix Pharm within 2 miles of my house.

Every single one of them has at least 3 pharmacists on duty during the day. At the CVS which I use there is always a line of 2-3 people waiting to pick up a prescription. I don't think I was ever in one of them (except for the Publix one) that there wasn't a car at the drive up window.

I'm sure this isn't the case everywhere. I live in NE Fl which does have a high senior population and they're probably not the ones who will use on-line services. I would guess my area is an anomaly. With the dying out of that senior group less comfortable with on line services over the next 10-15 years, in store services will probably be needed less.

But the other issue is medications needed immediately. I've gone to the doctor and he/she will give me a prescription to be used immediately for a short duration and a 1 time use. I do not use on-line ordering for those type of prescriptions.

[patphil]

42. I have a CVS, a Walgreens, and an in-store pharmacy at Shop-Rite within 1/4 mile of each other.

You can stand on the corner, and see all three.

[jimfields33]

18. I don't know if that's it yet.

Oldest boomer is 75. Youngest boomer is 56. Many years left for boomers. Just look at congress. Lol. They are not ready to give to Gen X quite yet.

[Steelrolled]

9. I imagine my local CVS is on the list

I have always wondered how they stay in business. I will be very sad if it goes - one of the last retail stores in my town.

[bedazzled]

12. They send me 40% off coupons consrantly

And i use them! I save so much money, i have no idea how they stay in business

[oldsoftie]

36. The people who DONT use the coupons!

[packman]

13. There are 4 of them within 10 miles of where I live

Including one inside a grocery store.

[Jilly_in_VA]

14. CVS sucks

They were on my "preferred pharmacy" list. When my pharmacy closed, they sold their customer list to Walgreens. The prices on all my prescriptions suddenly went up. I went to Walgreens and questioned this directly and I was told, "Oh well, we're not on your 'preferred' list." So I asked them to transfer everything to CVS, which I knew was. I then went to CVS, met with one of their techs, and gave him a list of all my meds. When I tried to refill one of them, I was told that they had no record of anything. I went full-on Karen and immediately demanded to see their pharmacy manager. I explained what had happened and also named the tech and the other pharmacy. He was all like "I'm sorry, but..." and I said, "Never mind, just transfer what you have to Kroger. NOW." And I walked out and went to Kroger, where I met with a very nice tech, explained what had happened, and gave her a list of my prescriptions etc. I then went back to Walgreens, told them to send everything to Kroger, and went home and emailed my doctor's office about the whole thing. A couple of days later I got a call from someone from CVS, possibly in management, I don't know. They wanted to know what my problem was and I told them the pharmacy at that store was simply incompetent and detailed what had happened. I got a few excuses but I doubt anything has changed.

Kroger has been amazing.

[Auggie]

19. Agree -- CVS sucks. I won't shop there for anything.

[Sherman A1]

39. I use CVS as my preferred pharmacy

and beyond being a bit enthusiastic about refilling prescriptions I have no problem with them at all.

[sarisataka]

20. It is an old formula

Big chain moves in and opens many convenient locations with prices that local small businesses can't compete with.

After the locals close and the chain has gorged itself on market share it closes "excess" locations. Customers may still pay somewhat lower than the old local stores charged but the locations may not be quite as convenient.

Also as that bloated market share is forced into fewer stores, service quality goes down and wait times go up.

[ret5hd]

22. Well, at least they aren't blaming shoplifting.

[mahina]

23. After putting our only family pharmacy of two generations

Out of business. They are the ones he had to negotiate with for payments too! Mop

[Historic NY]

25. I thought they were buying up Walgreens.

[Hoyt]

26. Heck, there is one on every corner. They can use some downsizing.

[Rebl2]

28. CVS I go

to is just down the street from. Hope it doesn’t close because it’s so convenient for me. Mine is pretty busy for the most part, so maybe it won’t.

[IronLionZion]

29. After putting local bodegas out of business

I don't need the prescriptions since I'm an HMO member and get it mailed home. But for convenience items they undercut all the local independent little immigrant owned shops on price. Put them out of business and then raised prices.

Sounds like they've been following the Wal-mart model. We have a CVS every 2 blocks or so here in my city.

[OnlinePoker]

30. Think of all the trees that will be saved by not printing mile long receipts anymore

I haven't been to a CVS in years, but the last time I went for a tube of toothpaste, the receipt was over a foot and a half long.

[Native]

31. It's the same at Walgreens. Coupon after coupon after coupon, all attached to the receipt.

[MineralMan]

34. Here in MN, Target Pharmacies are all CVS now. Maybe they're

shifting to in-store pharmacies instead of stand-alone.

[TwilightZone]

40. All Target Pharmacies are CVS now.

Target sold their pharmacy business to CVS in 2015. It's unlikely that has anything to do with this announcement. More likely, it's due to changing needs related to COVID and the shift of many insurance companies to preferring mail-order/90-day supplies, including Aetna, which is owned by CVS.

[MineralMan]

41. Yes, Aetna is buying up many things,

including my Medicare Advantage plan provider, Allina.

[TwilightZone]

45. Actually, it's the other way around.

CVS bought Aetna.

https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/cvs-finalizes-acquisition-of-aetna-and-looks-to-the-future

[MineralMan]

48. Ah, OK..

[lonely bird]

44. We use CVS inside Target because we used Target Pharmacy

CVS has cut staffing in locations like Target. For something like 14 days in a row it was just the pharmacist and no one else. Until relatively recently he got no time off for lunch. When he was finally off for a day they had a pharmacist from a “core” store which is a stand alone store fill in. The core store pharmacists do not ring up sales as that is the tech’s job. Consequently my poor pharmacist got something like 30 calls and texts while off because the fill-in couldn’t enter insurance info.

When you destroy competition the consumer suffers. Oh, prices may go down possibly as oligopolies can buy an order of magnitude cheaper but in the end the consumer gets screwed

[Mr. Ected]

37. I envision an Idiocracy-type future

Where Doordash drivers deliver your insulin to your doorstep and the mark-up is only $20 before tip.

[LiberalFighter]

47. I will not use CVS.

I used them years ago and when presenting my medical card told me I wasn't covered. I was. I went to Meijer and got my Rx. My coverage did not allow me to use Walgreen which was my preference.

After retiring, my coverage included Walgreen even though it was the same company as negotiated by my union.

I will never use CVS. And I hope a whole bunch of CVS's are closed in my area.

[Sherman A1]

49. Yes,

Wishing a whole bunch of stores close and people lose their jobs is certainly something a good Union member would want…….

[CountAllVotes]

57. Me too

I am not allowed to go there.

CVS manipulated one of my RX's and got caught. The perpetrator is now in Federal prison! I kid you not!

FUCK CVS!

[Bengus81]

50. The not that old CVS about a mile from my house is a DUMP

The don't care what the outside looks like so that tells you about the inside. They won't even re-stripe the parking lot and by now there literately are no parking stripes. They barely keep the grass mowed on the small strip between the sidewalk and the street on the corner lot.

Their "landscaping" is pretty much a few bushes and weeds growing ankle high where the mulch disappeared years ago. It's just amazing how they build all these thousands of stores and then ignore basic maintenance.

[brooklynite]

54. Between CVS, RiteAid, Walgreens and locals, I have 7 pharmacies within 1/4 mile.

[imavoter]

55. I'm sure they'll close stores where they're needed most

maybe where demographics have changed.

The local CVS near me are always so understaffed.
I wouldn't use then if I wasn't required to.
Tell me how I'm free if I'm required to use the pharmacy a company tells me I have to use?

[CountAllVotes]

56. Good

Sickening plague on society = CVS.

& recommend.

[twodogsbarking]

58. They remind me of a hot dog vendor at the ball park.

Drugs here. Get your drugs here.

[Mr. Scorpio]

59. There are like 14 CVS stores, ALL within a 10-15 drive from my current location.

Yeah, we can lose a few of them.

[Rhiannon12866]

61. Too bad, that's where I was able to get my vaccine.

The appointments went quick at the local store so I had to go to the next city South and it was a lovely new store and extremely efficient. I was in and out in 20 minutes...

[TexasBushwhacker]

62. Not surprised. They run all the Target pharmacies now

So I'm sure there was a fair amount of cannibalizing of their market.