Walgreens is set to acquire rival Rite Aid for around $9.41 billion in cash, creating a drugstore giant with nearly 18,000 stores worldwide. Last year, Walgreens agreed to buy over 1,900 Rite Aid stores and three distribution centers for $4.4 billion, leaving Rite Aid a much smaller chain operating in eight states. This year, the first attempt at buying Rite Aid was unsuccessful, as federal regulators accepted its $4.4 billion offer.
Walgreens Boots Alliance has dropped its takeover pursuit of rival Rite Aid after failing to win antitrust approval. Instead, it will buy nearly half of Rite Aid’s stores in a $17.2 billion takeover deal that will combine the nation’s second- and third-largest pharmacy chains. The deal was canceled in June 2017 after the Federal Trade Commission refused to approve it. In 2015, Walgreens attempted to buy out Rite Aid in a $17.2 billion deal, but the deal fell through due to the Federal Trade Commission’s refusal to approve it.
In October 2015, Walgreens Boots Alliance agreed to buy Rite-Aid for about $17 billion, including debt, to boost Walgreens’ U.S. presence. However, the deal fell through due to the Federal Trade Commission’s refusal to approve it. As a result, Walgreens bought about 42 of Rite Aid’s store network for $4.38 billion.
Rite Aid entered into an agreement with Walgreens Boots Alliance to sell 2,186 Rite Aid Stores and related assets for $5.175 billion. Although Rite Aid shareholders approved a merger deal with Walgreens in 2016, the two companies are now forging partnerships, emphasizing pharmacy services, and investing in digital.
📹 info on Rite Aids closing/clearance (ones owned by Walgreens) 7/31/18
Not all stores are closing. Right now just stores that have been purchased by Walgreens are being effected.
What chain did Walgreens buy?
Duane Reade Inc. is a pharmacy and convenience store chain owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, primarily located in New York and New Jersey. The chain is known for its high-volume, small store layouts in densely populated Manhattan locations. Founded in 1960 by Abraham, Eli, and Jack Cohen, the chain has three stores and a warehouse in Lower Manhattan. The name “Duane Reade” comes from the company’s first successful full-service drugstore, which opened in 1960 on Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets in Tribeca.
The chain was sold to Bain Capital in 1992 for $239 million, and in 1997, the majority ownership was sold to Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette. The company’s headquarters were moved to 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan in 2012.
Did Walmart own Walgreens?
Walgreens, which was established in the 1920s in Chicago, is not owned by Walmart. This is because it was founded prior to Sam Walton’s concept of establishing a retail chain that would eventually become Wal-Mart.
Who owns most of Walgreens?
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) stock is owned by a mix of institutional, retail, and individual investors. Institutional investors own approximately 44. 24 percent of the company’s stock, followed by 20. 12 percent from insiders and 35. 64 percent from public companies and individual investors. The latest TipRanks data shows that 25. 34 percent of WBA’s stock is held by institutional investors, 20. 12 percent by insiders, and 35. 64 percent by retail investors.
What is the Rite Aid scandal?
The US government has filed a complaint alleging that Rite Aid knowingly dispensed at least hundreds of thousands of unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances from May 2014 to June 2019. These prescriptions included the dangerous “trinity” combination of drugs, excessive quantities of opioids, and prescriptions issued by prescribers identified as suspicious. The government claims that Rite Aid filled these prescriptions despite clear “red flags” that indicated the prescriptions were unlawful.
Rite Aid also allegedly ignored substantial evidence of its stores dispensing unlawful prescriptions and intentionally deleted internal notes about suspicious prescribers. The government alleges that Rite Aid violated the CSA and the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by knowingly dispensing unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances. The complaint names Rite Aid Corporation, Rite Aid Hdqtrs Corp., Rite Aid of Connecticut Inc., Rite Aid of Delaware Inc., Rite Aid of Maryland, Rite Aid of Michigan, Rite Aid of New Hampshire, Rite Aid of New Jersey, Rite Aid of Ohio, Rite Aid of Pennsylvania, and Rite Aid of Virginia as defendants.
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) is entering into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with Rite Aid, which includes a prescription drug claims review to have an Independent Review Organization determine whether prescription drugs are properly prescribed, dispensed, and billed.
Did Walgreens ever buy Rite Aid?
In 2015, Walgreens attempted to buy Rite Aid for $17. 2 billion, but the deal fell through due to the Federal Trade Commission’s refusal to approve it. In June 2017, Walgreens canceled the merger and bought 42 of Rite Aid’s stores for $4. 38 billion. A recent lawsuit accuses Walgreens Boots Alliance of downplaying antitrust regulator scrutiny, with the settlement still requiring approval from a federal judge in Pennsylvania.
Are Walgreens and Rite Aid the same?
In 2017, Walgreens announced the cancellation of its merger with Rite Aid, offering to purchase 2, 186 stores for $5. 18 billion, plus a $325 million cancellation penalty. A revised deal was made, with Walgreens purchasing 1, 932 locations for $4. 38 billion, approved by the FTC on September 19. The revised sale was completed in March 2018, leaving Rite Aid with around 2, 600 remaining stores. Three distribution centers and related inventory were transferred, and most stores were rebranded as Walgreens.
In February 2018, Albertsons announced plans to acquire the remainder of Rite Aid in a merger of equals, but the plan failed to please shareholders and was cancelled on August 8, 2018. In October 2020, Rite Aid announced the acquisition of Bartell Drugs, a Seattle-area chain, for $95 million, which faced criticism from customers due to staff turnover and computer system glitches.
What brands does Walgreens own?
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) is a leading integrated healthcare, pharmacy, and retail company with over 331, 000 employees and a presence in eight countries. It operates through its portfolio of consumer brands including Walgreens, Boots, Duane Reade, the No7 Beauty Company, and Benavides in Mexico. WBA is a trusted global innovator in retail pharmacy with over 12, 500 locations across the U. S., Europe, and Latin America. The company aims to create more joyful lives through better health by reimagining local healthcare and well-being for all.
WBA is focusing on dispensing medicines, improving access to health services, providing high-quality health and beauty products, and offering convenience across its digital platforms, shaping the future of healthcare.
Who bought out Rite Aid?
Walgreens Boots Alliance is set to acquire Rite Aid for $17. 2 billion in an all-cash transaction. Rite Aid, founded in 1962, was initially Thrift D Discount Center. The company changed its name to Rite Aid Corporation in 1968 before its IPO on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). In 1970, its stock moved to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Rite Aid has faced growth, scandals, and deals with Walgreens and Albertsons. In 2015, it acquired Envision Pharmaceutical Services for $2 billion. Former Rite Aid executives admitted to overstating net income between 1997 and 2000.
Who did Walgreens buy out?
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) is an American multinational holding company that owns retail pharmacy chains Walgreens in the US and Boots in the UK, as well as several pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution companies. The company was formed in December 2014 after Walgreens bought a 55-stake stake in Alliance Boots for $4. 9 billion in cash and 144. 3 million common shares with a fair value of $10. 7 billion. Walgreens had previously purchased 45 shares for $4.
0 billion and 83. 4 million common shares in August 2012 with an option to purchase the remaining shares within three years. As of 2022, Walgreens Boots Alliance is ranked 18 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. In fiscal year 2022, the company saw sales of $132. 7 billion, up 0. 1 from fiscal 2021, and net earnings increase to $4. 3 billion. The company began trading on the NASDAQ in December 2014 and was replaced by General Electric on the Dow Jones Industrial Index in June 2018. It is also a component of the S and P 500 index and was formerly a Nasdaq-100 company until 2024.
Are Rite Aid and Walgreens the same?
In 2017, Walgreens announced the cancellation of its merger with Rite Aid, offering to purchase 2, 186 stores for $5. 18 billion, plus a $325 million cancellation penalty. A revised deal was made, with Walgreens purchasing 1, 932 locations for $4. 38 billion, approved by the FTC on September 19. The revised sale was completed in March 2018, leaving Rite Aid with around 2, 600 remaining stores. Three distribution centers and related inventory were transferred, and most stores were rebranded as Walgreens.
In February 2018, Albertsons announced plans to acquire the remainder of Rite Aid in a merger of equals, but the plan failed to please shareholders and was cancelled on August 8, 2018. In October 2020, Rite Aid announced the acquisition of Bartell Drugs, a Seattle-area chain, for $95 million, which faced criticism from customers due to staff turnover and computer system glitches.
Are Walgreens and CVS the same company?
It is inaccurate to assume that Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and CVS Pharmacy are all owned by the same parent company. In fact, these pharmacies operate independently and are owned by different companies. Walgreens is owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, Rite-Aid by Albertsons Companies, and CVS Pharmacy by CVS Health.
📹 Why Walgreens And CVS Are Shutting Down Thousands Of Stores
In its fiscal third-quarter report, Walgreens announced its plans to close a ‘significant’ amount of stores, acknowledging only 75% …
One of my RA’s closed completely and the other changed to Walgreens last week! I went to shop their 90% off but they were closed and putting up Walgreens signs😭 Now we’ve got 6 or 7 Walgreens in town and I hate Wags! I’m in RA withdrawal already 😭😭😭 enjoy it while you can! ❤️ I’ve enjoyed your RA articles for YEARS Michelle! Thank you for years of help ❤️
It’s so strange that there’s not better communication amount the stores. I’ve heard the ones left around here will be here at least another year…probably sept of next year. One manager told me they think Albertsons is going to put in a small grocery store in the 2 that are closed because they are right across the street from Walgreens stores. When the 2 here went to 59%, there was no more tobacco or vendor stuff, except greeting cards. They stayed at 50 for 2 weeks, then dropped 2 more times, but they were gone in 30 days. I didn’t get in on the 50% until the last day.
Walgreens bought the drugstore in my hometown only to just shut it down and transferring all the prescription data to a store that was 20 miles away. Their plan backfired when a citizen of our small town was going to school to be a pharmacist they graduated the same year Walgreens did this. They then opened up a drugstore across the street from the drugstore that Walgreens bought and now sits empty.
They advertise sales on the shelves but when you check out at the register, you learn that you need an e-coupon to get the sale price, then you need a Walgreens member card to get their mid price otherwise you pay the max price which is higher than any other retail store. Why would I want to shop at Walgreens?
The Pharmacist at the Mom & Pop pharmacy near my house apologized when I had to wait 10 minutes at the counter for my prescription to be filled (the script had been transmitted to them electronically during my visit to a nearby urgent care clinic). When I told him I was paying cash he asked if I had a discount plan. When I said I didn’t he consulted his own phone and found me a coupon. Antibiotics and decongestant cough medicine came to $26. Fast, polite, and cheap! I almost went into shock. This was my first visit to this pharmacy but it won’t be my last! Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart can go to Hell!
I worked at Walgreens for 12 years. Corporate used shrinkage as part of unrealistic profit goals to not give raises while store managers and upper management were given ridiculously high bonuses. When they went to a rewards program, employees were highly stressed to push that over keeping customers happy. We were pushed to get as much customer information as possible while getting yelled at on a daily basis. Chain/corporate pharmacies are terrible. The pharmaceutical control over this government should sincerely be investigated. But that’ll never happen.
Corporate chain pharmacies are exploitative, miserable s***holes that deserve to close. My time working at Walgreens was a nightmare for both staff and customers alike. These places epitomize everything wrong with corporate greed: they pay their employees poverty wages while price-gouging customers on life-saving medications. Their policies are a joke – they’ll shrug off hundreds of dollars in shoplifting losses, but god forbid they add a few extra labor hours to help the overwhelmed pharmacy staff. It’s a system designed to squeeze every last penny of profit at the expense of workers and patients!
I quit shopping at CVS and Walgreens over a decade ago, if not longer. Why in the world would I pay such high prices when I can get the same item at Walmart or Costco for a fraction of their prices? I went into CVS to get a flu shot last season and couldn’t get over the prices. The markups are astronomical!
My daughter works for CVS, and they have 2 massive problems – high front of house prices, and massive mismanagement by corporate of the pharmacies. The company just instituted a new phone system that makes it impossible for a customer to speak with a human. They regulate worker hours, so there are not enough people to keep up with prescriptions. This is clearly a failure of management.
I don’t get why whenever a chain starts closing stores, or chains that already failed, these “analysts” always say “the stores look the same as they did thirty years ago” . . as if THAT’S the problem. Whenever a store goes down, the people I talk to always say, “I quit going there because it was dirty, and poor customer service, and high prices”. Nobody ever says “Well. they haven’t remodeled the place so I quit going”
Boots bought Walgreens, fired senior pharmacists & most pharm techs, reduced hours, brought atrocious service, increased rx errors, allowed pharmacies to close for an hour at lunch while not opening before 9am and in many places closed at five pm. Boots killed Walgreens & has been liquidating assets for 2 years. Gee, what a mystery.🙄
For nearly 20 years, we went to the same local pharmacy. Then one day, I showed up and they were permanently closed w/o notice to staff nor customers. Without our input, our prescriptions were sent to the nearby Walgreens. For 10 years, I have seen a turnover of pharmacists, aids, and counter. Hours can be sketchy. And staffing is poor. A former employee who now works at another, said he left because he was getting $16.00/hr. It is no wonder why customer service is less than consistent. Frankly, I don’t care about their profits. For-profit healthcare is ghoulish, gruesome and immoral.
I used to work at CVS, and on truck day, it would only be 2 of us working the front. We would be unpacking the totes, having to unlock the perfume case, help in the photo section, answer calls, reset the self checkout every 5 mins and check out those that didn’t want to use self checkout. If we’re lucky, maybe the pharmacy would help up front, but only if they weren’t busy. But most of the time, we would have to help with pharmacy because they are swamped with patients. We were the only CVS in the 3 or 4 counties around, so that didn’t help.
I had to stop going to Walgreens because I am dying of liver cancer. I take strong painkillers. Walgreens on a Friday, after the closing of my Dr. office, decided that “I think something less strong …such as ibuprofen, will help relieve your pain better so I am gonna call your DR. back on Monday to suggest this and I am holding off filing this until I get another confirmation about filling this prescription.” I WAS BEYOND ANGRY…..I have been getting my prescriptions at a small pharmacy with better customer service and less judgment from young, healthy, ignorant pharmacists.
As a doctor I’m not surprised…they are awful compared to the family owned pharmacy near us which seems to have better stock and most importantly better customer service. So many CVS and Walgreens interactions are with machines or constantly being on hold. I call my family owned one and a human being always picks up. I’ve slowly moved away from these corporate pharmacies that run like an amazon warehouse.
I love how their just stuck on prices when’s that’s just half the battle. 1. Customer service sucks: This goes for front end and pharmacy. I remember having an insane headache while I was out running errands, I waited 20 minutes for someone to come open a glass case to get a bottle of Tylenol, then had to stand in a long line than ran through the store. By the time I got the Tylenol, I felt like I was going to pass out. Everytime we go to run errands, you are waiting on each aisle for someone to open up a glass case, so what used to take maybe 30 minutes in your pharmacy, takes over an hours to get all the items you need, now we just order all of our household items on Amazon. I get petty theft is a big problem but there had to be some other options that locking everything up. 2. Medications: I worked as a pharmacy tech for almost 15 years before I changed careers and our rule was we never let a patient leave the pharmacy without exhausting every single option to get their medicine including, calling the insurance, the doctor, initiating the prior authorization. The last time I was sick, I couldn’t get anyone on the phone to find out what was going on with my prescription, went and stood on a line for an hour only to be told that they can’t fill it because of my insurance. The tech knew nothing, in his words, “it just won’t go through” took that prescription down the block to my local mom and pop, they filled it in 10 minutes and now they get all my families business. This is so much bigger than just prices but they are using prices as the scapegoat.
Last year CVS closed 3 nearby locations and sent every prescription from those three to the cvs closest to me. pick up lines constantly had an hour+ wait, the pharmacy was severely understaffed, and they were out of stock on a LOT of medication. i because of this i learned that each pharmacy as a limit on how much of each medication they’re allowed to order per year, which wasn’t taken into account or changed when the amount prescriptions they got quadrupled. i’m so tired of big companies screwing people over for profits
Real nice, the areas that have pharmacy’s are Whiter, but the areas that have high shrinkage “theft” aren’t mentioned as black. The pharmacy deserts had pharmacy’s but they don’t now because of wildly disproportionate shop lifting, violence, & mayhem by blacks. We’ve all seen the riots, but CNBC doesn’t want to mention that, doesn’t want to hold anyone accountable for their actions. This is straight up racism.
As a retired Walgreens store manager of 35 years the blame for this is rooted in reimbursement rates that have been shrinking for years. Pharmacy Benefits Management companies control and set these rates. Walgreens problem was not knowing how to offset these declines. They have been in a futile race to reduce expenses enough to compensate for this. That’s why stores are understaffed and overwhelmed. CVS decided to actually buy a PBM to deal with this reality. PBM’s are a horrible idea that has destroyed community pharmacy in the US.
I think your report misses one key aspect of Walgreens’ and CVS’s problem – their pharmacy workers have little to no training regarding customer service. I often have to wait ten minutes or more when I’m the only customer there and at least 4 to 5 pharmacy people are behind the glass and ignoring me and talking among themselves, on the phone, or doing other things. I hate dealing with these people like this.
I was fed up with CVS. It was in a crowded mall so I wouldn’t go on weekends. The adjacent grocery store chain had better prices. The tech was annoying. So now I go to a family owned pharmacy that’s been in town for years. When I have no one to pick up a script, they drop it off. If my doctor’s refill line is screwed up, the pharmacy emails the doctor’s office and gets it filled. It is open fewer hours but the personal service is tops.
Years ago, I decided to make Walgreens my pharmacy. When I had an issue, I called Walgreen’s local phone number and got someone in Kansas (3 states away). There was no way to call my local Walgreens pharmacist. Sorry, but that’s unacceptable. I quickly moved back all my prescription needs back to my local pharmacist who knows my name and who I am. My local pharmacist who I can call on the phone when I have a question.
After years I left Walgreens after posting several complaints to the company with zero response, so I went to the Pharmacy in the grocery right next door, and it was like day and night…the grocery pharmacy has great service and very little if any waiting and the staff are all very helpful something that never existed at Walgreens…glad to see them go…
Walgreens downward spiral began when the founding family sold their majority stake and allowed investors to race to the bottom. Profits over sustainability, when a company is privately controlled it typically looks at its business as a legacy vs when it is publicly controlled it run by CEOs as a quarterly profit driven mule. Walgreens used to only open new stores with their own capital, when sold it started opening stores on credit, coping CVS debt ridden strategy. Then a much of misteps has lead to its state today.
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Why not just be a pharmacy and carry medical supplies? It would allow them to have a much smaller store footprint versus these huge buildings stuffed with crap people don’t buy. In my area, Walgreens moved in, and the next thing we knew, all the small local mom-and-pop pharmacies started closing. These mom-and-pop places had been there for generations. Now, you are forced to go to Walgreens, where it can sometimes take days to fill a prescription. Just dropping a paper prescription off can take an hour as you have to wait in line with everyone picking up as the drop off window is always closed. We drive to the next town over to use one of the last mom-and-pop places still open, and we can be in and out in less than 15 minutes. Oh, and all they are is a pharmacy and the extra they sell is all otc medical stuff. No chips, animal food, snacks, drinks, detergents.
I live in Rochester, NY and in my neighborhood area, Walgreens decided to plant a large store across the street from Wegmans. Really bad idea. That Walgreens was open for only two years, and the building has been sitting vacant for nearly ten years. They didn’t understand their competition or they underestimated it.
Also, the problem with online pharmacies is that Federal laws prevent (or at least inhibit) certain medications from being shipped to people. I have a medication that’s classified as a “controlled substance” that I have to order through my insurances online pharmacy to get it covered and the process is an ORDEAL. No ability to auto-refill, and it always ships as certified mail (even though I have a locked mailbox) requiring a signature (which I’m never home for) so I end up getting it like a week later than I should and often have to pick it up from the post office instead. And god forbid you have allergies and take Sudafed for it, the laws won’t even allow physical pharmacies to dispense it through a drive-through window, let alone ship it.
I noticed that as the old independent filling stations disappeared, either a Walgreens or a CVS appeared. I wondered what their business model was to put in so many stores in the city. Locations were good but I thought it was overkill. Now that buying habits are changing and everyone is broke, it’s inevitable that both chains will be circling the stool soon.
I was a front end employee at walgreens for 4 years. I left right before they started the big lock up. The biggest problem is that they don’t give enough hours to be able to actually run the store. The amount of tasks they want you to do along with customer service is not realistic. Plus the high prices, I’m not shocked this is happening
I currently work at one, I’ve never seen the amount of stealing people do at any retail place I’ve worked at. We don’t have security, we are told to do nothing, the only thing we are allowed to do is ask shoplifters if we can help them with anything. I’ve literally seen people walk into the store and walk out with a bunch of stuff calmly because they know we can’t do anything.
Walgreens is probably the worst managment. You have employees who just don’t know what they’re doing and sometimes they take forever to get to you because they are so busy with other things. I tried to get my medication from them but they keep controdicting themselves saying how they didn’t get a approval from the doctor and they say its out of stock. I called my doctor to send a approval and then I go back there and they tell me the same thing again. Turns out someone messed up the details with another person in the system. It sucks because CVS and Walgreens are close to where I live and I cannot go to any other reliable pharmacy.
In San Francisco everything is locked up I have to press the help button for every single thing I need. I live literally next door to a CVS and a block from a Walgreens— I just order on Amazon now for everything because I don’t want to have to stand around and wait for the one employee that is helping EVERYONE. They locked up everything to prevent financial loss but now they are losing revenue because they are losing customers entirely.
Too many stores, too high prices. not enough staff. This should be a franchise model, split 10% 90% to owner, that way owners keep better eye on their store. Owners should be restricted to having 1 store for first 3 years, then 2 after 5, but never more than 3. This way they don’t have another corporation come and open franchise like burger king and other franchisees do.
Because you can buy the same OTC products at Wally World for about a 1/3 less. The only thing that helps chain pharmacies is that they have been particularly skillful at obtaining the best property for their stores. That corner lot at a major intersection is gold. If I just need my allergy meds and don’t feel like dealing with the Star Wars bar scene at Walmart, I’ll pay the jacked up price just to be able to get in and out.
I once waited and waited for an understaffed CVS to unlock Tylenol. It was a terrible experience, just standing there waiting for something that was way overpriced anyway. So now I just make sure I’m stocked up. I imagine that’s what other people do too, so they’re probably losing the foot traffic of customers who might come in for a necessity and then browse and buy other stuff
I work in an independent pharmacy. It is the reimbursement rate that is destroying pharmacys. We lose money on everything. Generics we lose .50 to 1.00. Brands. $100. To $150. If a medication cost $1000. For example. We are reimbursed $850. We lose on average $100 to $200 a day. That’s why you can’t find brands. If we tell the customer or refuse to fill it we lose our contact with that insurance company.
Claiming that independent pharmacies will fill the void left by chain pharmacies is overly optimistic and disregards the financial and logistical challenges these small businesses face. The resurgence of independent pharmacies is unlikely to fully address the access issues in low-income and rural areas, leading to even larger pharmacy deserts.
Walgreens is not run well. There is so much waste. So much broken equipment they refuse to fix. Lots of burning out employees by refusing to give enough hours to man the store properly. Not paying a living wage. The company’s credit card is a disaster. Always picking the lowest bidder for cleaning crews that don’t do a decent job. I can go on & on.
There are a few reasons for this — the threat of Amazon and other online businesses, which are allowed to operate in ways that retail businesses could never get away with, continue to become more popular and monopolistic – I don’t see this changing. There’s way too many of these stores as well, lots of them concentrated in certain areas/cities and then in other places which could actually USE a location, they’re nowhere to be found. However, the largest reason, and the one that many will ignore or say is not true, is because of the explosion in shoplifting and organized retail theft, it’s decimating these chains’ bottom lines.
My health insurance company moved my prescriptions from Express Scripts to CVS. I received two prescriptions from Express Scripts by mail every quarter. They were reliable and easy to deal with. In contrast, I was unable to get CVS to reliably mail my prescriptions on a quarterly basis. Sometimes they would mail them to me. Sometimes I would have to pick them up in the store. I spoke to CVS corporate on the phone on multiple occasions. I sent letters to the CEOs of my insurance company and CVS. I spoke to executive customer support at CVS. They repeatedly said the problem was solved. Then the next month I again had to pick up my prescription. I have since had prescription renewals sent to Amazon. I pay more to get the prescriptions from Amazon and I don’t like the fact that Amazon has monopolistic tendencies. But Amazon is able to reliably deliver the prescriptions to my door. Amazon’s web site is easy to use. The fact of the matter is that CVS is simply incompetent.
All the Local Pharmacies have been closing for years. The items they sell are for older people. Nothing other than picking up your medicine makes you want to buy their goods. Costco, Walmart, Target and most Grocery Stores has local Pharmacy inside so, you can do your shopping and get your medicine at the same time. Then Amazon has Pharmacy so, that makes things easier. It’s so sad how we’re losing local stores. Good luck with staying open. 💸💸💰💰🛒🛒🥺💔❤️🩹
They’re blaming it on inflation. Why people have no money? It couldn’t simply be because every single corporation that’s in the retail business is price gouging. And shrinkflation is out of control. Nope, couldn’t be that. Yeah it’s definitely theft. That’s why. When you can, go behind a Walgreens and look through the dumpster and see thousands of dollars of merchandise in the dumpster instead of selling it or giving it to needy people. Absolute greed.
The big box pharmacies are too much of a pain point. We can only put up with high prices and terrible service for so long. It really hit a new low post-covid. Getting vaccines, and even some medications, was like jumping through a thousand hoops. Now I go to a Wagreeens inside a hospital, and it’s literally just a pharmacy, a single cooler with some drinks, and a small wall display with a few retail items. The service is so much better there. My prescriptions are always ready within an hour and getting vaccines is a breeze. That’s all I need.
3:33 Store experience has deteriorated? You could say that again. Everytime I go to a CVS I will want to buy something that is behind a glass case so I wait for a worker to come and open it, but they take so long and sometimes I go and look for them when they don’t show after several minutes. Then I go to another aisle and then the same thing happens. 😐 At one point, I basically just had them follow me around and carry my things since I’m also not allowed to touch them until I pay for them at the register. It is a much more awkward place to go than other places. Of course they have other work to do in the store so I have to constantly apologize for taking up their time, but that’s the model that corporate has decided.😅
I have drastically reduced my shopping at the local Walgreens because of those annoying locks. I also no longer buy power tools at my local Home Depot because of the locked cages. Shoplifters are absolutely ruining retail shopping. (Note that Professor Guadamuz blamed lack of resources but failed to mention crime… there’s the problem).
CVS used to run a pharmacy in Target, which was super convenient, but they decided that it was not a fit with their business model, so they closed it…. We did not start shopping at their stand alone store, we used the alternatives inside other large stores we visit. There is no shortage of demand for the products, but between crappy service, high prices and limited selection, these stores are failing. It all starts at the top with the stupid CEO’s
For anything not prescription related, Walgreen’s are essentially glorified convenience stores with prices to match. As far as prescriptions, I got tired of waiting behind 10 other people in line for 1 person to assist at the register and the drive thru at the same time, always giving drive thru first priority. Then, one day at the grocery store, I walked by the pharmacy and it dawned on me that I went to Walgreen’s only for prescriptions, but I was at the grocery store a couple times a week anyway. So I haven’t been in a Walgreen’s in more than a year and I rarely wait in line at the pharmacy counter at Kroger.
Walgreens is a total clown show. Every month it took hours to refill a RX. Waiting on hold endlessly and no clear way to communicate via text to the pharmacy to avoid the nightmare. I moved to Rite-Aid the clouds parted and they made the simple process simple again. Walgreens refuses to hire enough staff to manage the pharmacy so why would anyone want to work there? More importantly why would any customer want to subject themselves to the abuse. They make it impossible to lodge a complaint which could serve to shed light on the issues. Walgreens is completely defective and they deserve to go out of business.
My pharmacist at Rite Aid worked for RA for 10 years. He had to look for a new pharmacist position, but he told me it was difficult. Most pharmacists stay where they are at, so positions are scarce. And now with so many pharmacies closing it made it even harder. This makes me sad for him because he just told after Rite Aid closes on Wednesday he did finally get a job at CVS. But how long will he be there? The other pharmacist at Rite Aid still has not found anything. I am in the boat of having to find a new pharmacy after being with RA for 12 years. Rite Aid said all my scripts will go over to Walgreens, but I will not be going there. I refuse. Have heard nothing but terrible things about them. Will be having my prescriptions transferred to another pharmacy at my local hospital.
FAMILY OWNED OR INDEPENDENT PHARMACIES My dog has to take a pain medication for his back & both CVS & Walgreens will RUDELY refuse to fill it. My local independent pharmacy will call me a week before to see if the pharmacist needs to order it this month & if it’s back ordered than they usually keep a reserved bottle so they can fill it. I get the whole staff donuts & coffee every month when I get a refill because of that extra level of care that a place like CVS or Walgreens don’t do
As a former Walgreens employee of 20 years, I can say I’ve seen it all. Went from cashier to pharmacy tech to store manager. In that process they treat their employees as numbers and not people. They consistently cuts our hours, and expected more work to be done. Reimbursement rates for prescriptions were terrible so we had to promote like 50 different programs so the company wouldn’t cut our hours even more. Not to mention they’re woke practices that they kept pushing. They constantly were “restructuring” company leaderships and axing local corporate personnel who were loyal to the brand for decades without warning. Final straw was punishing store managers and pharmacists by not giving expected bonuses because company “didn’t perform well.” At the end of the day most of us working for them were just people trying to work to provide for our family and do better but our work often went unrecognized and unappreciated. I’m happy I found opportunity elsewhere.
People absolutely do not understand the problems facing pharmacy- it’s the PBMs. They are keeping more profit per claim pressuring pharmacies to adjust. Front of the store doesn’t much matter- the prescription sales are what drives profit and PBMs are becoming so unprofitable that many prescriptions are filled at a loss, meaning they will refuse certain coverages. I’ve managed pharmacies. I’ve watched this occuring
Billionaires are the problem. Pass laws that break up companies automatically at 500 billion value and throw people in jail for a minimum of 90 days for a first offense of becoming a billionaire and tax them 101% of their wealth to wipe them out and leave them in dept. Also force this person to do 2 years of manual labor after prison and tax everything over the poverty level 100%. The richest people need to be forced to live like poor people or the world is going to die…
Walgreens messed up big time advertising their vitamin and supplements. 1. They have these awesome sales, but they use HUGE tags that hangs in front of the products . You have trouble even finding it. 2. Why have a sale and then not stock the products? Bait and switch is illegal. You advertize Buy 2 Get 1 free. 9 times out of 10, they only have 2 on the shelf. They’ve been doing this since before the pandemic and they are still doing it. CVS used to be great when they first started out but I don’t waste my time in there either. They changed. So shopping Walgreen’s sales is a waste of time and gas.
Another important facts not mentioned is that PBM can claw back any reimbursement + copay paid to the retail pharmacy. For example, pt paid $15.00 copay but the generic drug price is below that copay, the PBM can take away $5 from that copay leaving retail pharmacy losing more $. PBM drives up drug costs and pharmacy closures.
Bottom line – corporate greed is driving the stores into the ground. They claim to be bankrupt, but what has been their profit margin for the past 5 yrs? How much does the CEO make? A quick Google search just showed me that Tim Wentworth has a net worth of $51million. Doesn’t sound like his stores can be doing that bad.
They are shutting down because they have alienated every available Dr and patient in the market. buying from Canada gives you medication prices about 1/3 of the US major prices. If you get to go to Europe, things like Simbrinza (Glaucoma med) are 3% of the US big store price. The stores, at least CVS near me are disheveled and sloppily marked. It is a chore to wait in line for prescription meds that they have to order. I can’t get vitamins and OTC drugs conveniently. The PDMs make all of us suspicious. They made their bed….My co pays vary from month to month by 100’s of % from $35 to $135 with no explanation or predictable behaviour
The problem with Walgreens is not the pharmacy which typically is well staffed and takes up maybe 10% of the real estate of the store, but the rest of the store that is always understaffed, poorly designed and seems lost. They have many great deals(i.e. a half gallon of Walgreens bleach is $2.49 with the same bottle of Clorox costing six dollars at Publix.) Nevertheless, the front of the store is lost. They do not advertise, and dabble in consumer products like a general store from 100 years ago.
I’m not surprised Walgreens is closing down.They have horrible customer service.They try to not give you medications or they overcharge for medication so you’re denied.. Amazon pharmacy is the most awesome pharmacy I have ever used, They don’t try to force me to fill a prescription that I don’t need At that time. They overcharged for For prescriptions that your insurance company doesn’t deny you. I got denied for some Prescriptions with Walgreens.Because there were to high. I bought these patches that I I needed from walgreens And I got 7 thirty five dollars. Then I got another prescription refilled with amazon for fourteen patches and they charged me Seven dollars and fifty cents. I got double the amount of patches For a quarter of the price.
I used to have my prescriptions at Walgreen’s. I experienced extremely poor service from the pharmacy. The pharmacy closed on entire or partial days without notice and did not change their phone message to reflect this. Prescriptions might take many days to be filled, and sometimes the request would be cancelled for no known reason. For phone calls, one would have to wait so long on hold to speak to a pharmacist, one of my health care providers no longer even tried to phone in new prescriptions and just provided a written script for me to take in myself. To top it off, their front-of-store rewards program was so awkward, I stopped trying to use it. I have now switched to the pharmacy at my supermarket, and service has been efficient and flawless. As to Walgreen’s going bankrupt, I say, ‘Good riddance!”
Completely agree with the locking up products part. I’ve walked out of many stores that locked up toothpaste or laundry detergent. I don’t have time to track down a sales associate, then wait while they look for the key to unlock the cabinet.. Most of their products can be purchased at a one stop for everything store like Walmart. Given the stubbornly high price of gas people are looking to make fewer trips.
I find it difficult to believe that this business was unprofitable when it made $23 billion last year. The issue with American capitalism is the stock market. That’s a fact that people need recognize. Most of you no matter how much you try and no matter how much you pretend or pray or beg or work or anything, will never achieve any sort of real wealth. It’s time for us to recognize the fact that we need to take control over the economic system and restructure it so that every worker can afford to live a life of dignity no matter what they do. $23 billion is enough to run that organization for the next decade without any profit. The issue here is greed is so deep that it pollutes the soul of this nation.
CVS and Walgreens stacked their stores at the same intersections, overbuilding, and xompeting. The retail prices are exoribitantly high. The pharmacies are always busy. People no longer want to patrinize the stores pushing innoculations. They were duped into getting nanoparticles and graphene oxide in their arms and are resentful at the myocarditis and sudden death outcomes. It is that simple.
Part of the issue is how the companies are reimbursed by insurance companies, not as much profit as one expects. Deregulation is not a panacea, available to fill scripts will join inflation, war, gas prices on your list of complaints against capitalism and why government regulation is a necessary evil. Cannot trust a publicly financed corporation, the incentive is to abuse instead of produce and until that changes more pain in other areas too. You will be blamed.
There’s one person working in there, and five people waiting in line. The store is full of toys and home decor and junk food but they’re out of band-aids. There’s an entire wall of protein powder but only one kind of calcium supplements, and it’s not the kind your doctor told you to get. Everything costs more. Hard to believe people stopped going in.
Well, let’s clear the air. I worked at a Walgreens for some years and what I’ve noticed is that Walgreens is just a pricier convenience store with a pharmacy. Most people walk in to buy last minute gifts, buy snacks while they wait for their drugs and get out. Walgreens typically has higher priced items than typical retail. Walmart is doing the same thing but is cheaper. Hell, even Target has their own pharmacy too. As do Costco and other big box stores. Pharmacy retail needs to provide a better service besides just drugs. You can’t survive on just being a standalone drug store anymore. You gotta provide a better service.
As a Technician with the company, you have 1/4 of the staff a single McDonalds shift would have yet only pay them $1 more, the environment is chaos, with no clear direction. Why would I want to be hired as a Technician starting at $16.50, follow state and federal mandated laws, be held responsible for potentially harming someone because I’m understaffed.
In almost every industry, what we are seeing is “runaway capitalism”. Profit is the only thing that matters to the top one percent who, by the way, literally own 50% of everything in the United States. Metaphorically speaking, everything in this country is being held hostage until the right price is paid…including housing, insurance, vehicles, health care, food, entertainment, education, and so on. And ironically, the top 1% don’t pay ANY taxes.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with theft. In certain cities lowering the amount of and felony if you steal. Mini major chain gas stations are instructed not to even approach people stealing eating food right off of the grill getting free drinks. The lady at the store said they’re just not allowed to even approach him. Let him take whatever they want
Worked at Walgreens for almost 20years and it basically became a nightmare with “Softstop” this new policy 😂 allowed thieves to come in and just literally steal stuff right off the shelves and the employees couldn’t even say anything besides “can I help you with anything?”. It basically encouraged shelf swiping and boosting. Shrink combined with inflation these stores are doomed and because they treat the stores like crap it exactly what they get
Know a few people who work at retail pharmacys at Walgreens. Issue is not the theft (when you look at the number of stores and how many have thefts as we see in the news is not significant). Walgreens is playing it up to hide what is the really shortcomes of management’s incompetence. Lack of upgrades to their pharmacy systems, lack of workers in the pharmacy area, lack of increased pay for staff across the board, and over working staff in the pharmacy area. If they actually paid the pharmacy staff then they would not have to have floater pharmacist going to stores (where if no one is available they shut the back for the day). On top of that they force pharmacist (full time) to float to those stores (where support staff is lacking, and work is left behind for the next pharmacist to clean up delaying same day patients while doing the support staff work as well). Walgreens closer is management fault not consumers.
I quit buying front of house health and beauty products because they no longer kept it stocked like before. It’s not due to theft but due to incompetence. I now buy my deodorant, razors and lotions from Amazon because brick and mortar locations don’t feel like ordering it and seem to be ok with hundreds of items being out of stock. Doesn’t take long for others to follow suit because they can no longer depend on their items being in stock.
Too bad these stores–in collusion with hospitals–have continued to force out many beloved family pharmacies. And, if you don’t shop with annoying coupons–you’re screwed! These places are cookie-cutter, which makes for a really boring shopping experience. But still, I’m grateful these days for ANY open stores at this point.
I am certain that these pharmacies’ labor policies and working conditions have always been horrible, but this “crisis” is ENTIRELY due to the fact that woke CEO’s won’t draw a line in the sand and take measures to ensure that theft is deterred and not tolerated (such as hiring actual armed security guards) and have thus lost billions of dollars of merch due to theft. And we should be careful what we wish for: you ABSOLUTELY should not want Amazon or other delivery services to be your only option to get needed medicines or even household products. Communities need brick and mortar stores.
When it comes to Walgreens the last several years, with the exception of a few pleasant employees, I’ve gotten weird or straight up hostilte service from Walgreens. At one point I had to call the employee out on her behavior. So maybe they are getting what they deserve. They were thinking it was okay to treat customers badly, and still charge high prices.
Notice how gently they barely covered the theft issue. I can’t imagine why a store would close its doors when “shrinkage” ( theft ) is a big problem. And from what I hear that is the lower income neighborhoods. It is the same problem with all stores. When all these people scream defund the Police, and the courts turn loose the ones that do get caught, how could you expect anything else.
Cutting payroll and running the stores with a skeleton crew at Rite Aid did very little to help the bottom line and make stock holders happy. But, it did a lot to help the bonus programs of management above the district level. Upper management drove the company into the ground for the sake of their bonus. If customers complained about slow service or cursory service the management (the store manager and pharmacist) on the front line got blamed and it was used against them at their annual review to deny pay raises. This destroyed loyalty (not that corporate cared anyway) and the company went bankrupt for this reason and many others too. For example, high prices, loads of gimmicks, poor produce mix and selection, took security out of high risk stores, bad store locations, and worried customers to death with constant telephone calls from the pharmacy. District management was afraid to advocate for their under staffed stores because they would get yelled at and told they were not with the program and be fired or demoted. You can read about court cases of this on the internet.
Walmart and target have everything Walgreens has. At a much better price. even Home Depot is starting to sell items that you could find at Walgreens. Like glasses, deodorant, hand, lotion, and drinks and snacks. 7-Eleven and other big gas station marketplace also are selling a lot of items you would find at Walgreens. Now you can buy pain, reliever, Tums and Pepto-Bismol at Lowe’s and Home Depot.
No, not for the most marginalized neighborhoods. For Americans. All of us. This particularly affects the 60 million people who live outside of metropolitan areas. This topic in particular affects the largest racial group of poor in America – whites. When the pharmacies in small-town America that’s been serving not just that town but likely nearby towns and all of the folk living on farms and in rural areas outside those towns, they can’t walk to, drive to, or hop on the bus/train/subway and go a few neighborhoods over, or to another part of the city to get their prescriptions. They’re suddenly looking at very long round-trip drives to get to the nearest pharmacy. And as a bonus, the pharmacies in these areas often have limited supply and limited access to rapid resupply of even critical drugs that are the difference between life and death. And increasingly this is the case even in exurbs, where a rapidly growing number of Americans have to live because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. This affects FAR more than “the most marginalized.”
Had to fire Walgreens due to skimming pills from prescriptions and CVS customer service is almost as bad as FedEx (FedEx customer service is the worst I have ever seen). We have to use CVS because our health insurance is tied to using CVS so the prices we pay are almost zero or is zero. But man, the customer service is god awful both locally and corporately with CVS.
I hope my cvs won’t close. I can shop around for Rx and CVS by far gets better prices. I save hundreds of dollars with their coupons and i have the receipts to prove it. At end of year my card will tell me I’ve saved $2000 on OTC vitamins. CVS has coupons and I compare it to others. The dollar stores may have cheaper aspirin but if you price it per pill/caplet is not cheaper. My CVS is in a safe suburban area. They’ve got to lock because it’s an area where there are THIEVES that wont be arrested if you are in a liberal Democrat lead city