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'Retail apocalypse' forces Walgreens to axe 150 stores by summer 2024: Chain says sales have been hit by plummeting demand for Covid vaccines and tests
Daily Mail ^ | June 29, 2023 | Helena Kelly

Posted on 06/29/2023 11:09:36 AM PDT by Angelino97

Walgreens is set to shutter 150 stores after slashing its earnings forecast due to lessening demand for Covid-19 tests and vaccine shots.

Shares in the pharmaceutical chain plummeted to $28.64 on Tuesday - their lowest level in more than 11 years - prompting drastic cost-cutting measures from executives.

Last night the firm confirmed all the closures will take place by the end of August 2024. As of midday Thursday its shares were sitting at $28.59, down 30 percent from last year.

Walgreens said it had been hit especially hard by the end of the pandemic which saw demand for its Covid-19 vaccine shots and testing facilities decline rapidly.

It also suggested that consumers were increasingly inflation-weary and less likely to spend.

Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer - who was given a $24.7 million signing bonus when she took on the job in February 2021 - told investors in a conference call: 'We have seen changing market trends that have consumers prioritizing value in response to a more uncertain and challenging economic environment.'

The chain reported a 59 percent profits decline to $118 million in the fiscal third quarter, which ended May 31, reports NBC Bay Area...

The news prompted shares in its rivals CVS Health and Riteaid to also fall.

On Thursday CVS health shares were trading at $68.34, down by 26.78 percent in the last year.

Similarly, Riteaid stocks were trading at $1.54, down by 78 percent over the last year.

Investment expert Jeff Jonas, who manages the Gabelli Funds portfolio, told Reuters: 'Very few people are getting either rapid tests or the actual PCR nasal swab tests. That ... probably has some impact on CVS and Rite Aid.'

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: covid; retail; vaccine; virustesting; walgreens
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To: CFW

Affirmative action hire...


61 posted on 06/29/2023 2:25:26 PM PDT by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: gleeaikin; metmom
gleeaikin :" Would drug stores help themselves if they promoted nutritional education
and had bigger sales in supplements, vitamins and minerals? "

Probably so ... !
That is why they cant compete with GNC for nutritional supplements and information,
and compete with Whole Foods for nutritional foods.
Nutrition and Economy used to be taught in the schools, generally in the Home Economics classes,
which explains why educational system is not meeting the population needs, and is irrelevant to an adequate education.

62 posted on 06/29/2023 2:33:56 PM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
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To: Angelino97

walgreens was living on borrowed time anyway: they GROSSLY overbuilt the number of stores, and their retail prices are absolutely insane ... no one in their right mind buys ANYTHING at walgreens if they can conveniently find it at walmart, costco, sams club, etc.

btw, i’m STILL POed at walgreens for charging me $12.75 for a single pill at their pharmacy many year ago, a generic pill that probably cost them one cent ... their explanation was that $12.75 was their minimum charge for ALL prescriptions because of “overhead” ... i haven’t been back since ...


63 posted on 06/29/2023 2:46:20 PM PDT by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: newzjunkey

walgreens overbuilt in my little town too ... the first one to close was converted to a Harbor Freight whose parking lot is almost always full ...


64 posted on 06/29/2023 2:48:55 PM PDT by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: Ingtar

“Around Tennessee, it feels as if there are 150 Walgreens in the same city sometime”

yeah, like one on every block ...


65 posted on 06/29/2023 2:49:25 PM PDT by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: Boogieman

Osco used to be one of my favorite stores ... of course, that was nearly a half century ago ...


66 posted on 06/29/2023 2:50:44 PM PDT by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: Harpotoo

O-BodyMortgage-Un-Care stores.


67 posted on 06/29/2023 2:57:50 PM PDT by Varsity Flight ( "War by🙏🙏 the prophesies set before you." I Timothy 1:18. Nazarite prayer warriors. 10.5.6.5)
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To: Harpotoo

replying to you since #1 got deleted.

maybe they hired extra people who fit the appropriate boxes for diversity, and now that they need to cut staff they don’t want to appear racist so they will just close whole stores instead of letting go the last few hired?


68 posted on 06/29/2023 3:02:24 PM PDT by b4me
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To: Living Free in NH
If she is fired for the DEFORMATIVE AXIUM, then There is only one thing to do:

YOU TAKES UM TO COURT!!!

69 posted on 06/29/2023 3:07:45 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Angelino97

sure if you don’t mind supporting owner/upper ranks of amazon that don’t really like America and it’s foundation but love the folks who easily hand over their money to amazon.


70 posted on 06/29/2023 3:13:18 PM PDT by b4me
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To: Dr. Sivana

The one near me was open 24 hours before COVID. I think it’s 16x7 for the store, and for the pharmacy 16x5 M-F and 8x2 Sat-Sun.


71 posted on 06/29/2023 4:17:41 PM PDT by scrabblehack
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To: Harpotoo

CEO of CVS lying to Ted Cruz (who’s being the good guy) about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZEGjkamTIE


72 posted on 06/29/2023 4:21:52 PM PDT by Vision (Woke is communism and it has no place in America. Election Reform Now! Obama is an evildoer.)
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To: steve86

I don’t know any independent pharmacies around me (including the one where I had my first job long ago) that were “bought out” by the chains. More like “driven out” 20-30 years ago.

If they were smart, they quit while they were still ahead rather than ride the slide down to ruin.


73 posted on 06/29/2023 4:36:52 PM PDT by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy...and call it progress" )
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To: ConservativeInPA

I wonder if part of the problem with these chain pharmacies is that they’ve expanded so much over time (in terms of what they stock besides prescriptions) that they have been targeting the “wrong” market?

Sort of like somebody’s description of what led to the abrupt fall of the Bennigan’s restaurant chain...that they had imperceptibly drifted over time from a bar that served food to a family restaurant that served alcohol, and those were two completely different markets.


74 posted on 06/29/2023 4:46:50 PM PDT by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy...and call it progress" )
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To: M1903A1

It happened repeatedly here. For example, all the retail pharmacies within the hospital buildings (not the hospital pharmacies for in-patients).


75 posted on 06/29/2023 4:54:48 PM PDT by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Points taken. Thanks


76 posted on 06/29/2023 5:08:12 PM PDT by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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To: EVO X

“...changing buying habits of our customers”

“Five finger discounts” are included in “changed ‘buying’ habits.”


77 posted on 06/29/2023 7:08:26 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (I don’t like to think before I say something...I want to be just as surprised as everyone else.)
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To: b4me; Tilted Irish Kilt; SeekAndFind

If the problem is mostly overhiring to meet a bigger demand then laying off last hireds can help. But based on comments and my own observations it primarily seems to be overbuilding and the Malling of America. Also, if you want to compete with WalMart and Amazon you can’t be paying your top execs over $20 million like they do and charge more than they do for products. Also, if you have overbuilt, then closing stores makes sense too.


78 posted on 06/29/2023 10:01:57 PM PDT by gleeaikin (Question authority!.)
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To: Harpotoo
"Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer - who was given a $24.7 million signing bonus when she took on the job in February 2021.

I thought I recognized that CEO's name:

People are calling Sam's Club CEO 'racist' after she gave an interview about diversity

79 posted on 07/01/2023 8:00:50 PM PDT by blam
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