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Florida is taking a strong stand against retail theft and “porch piracy.” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a bill that would crack down on criminals participating in shoplifting rings and engaging in other types of property crime. While doing so, he took some shots at California and New York for going easy on those committing these offenses. Amid widespread retail theft occurring across the nation, state and local governments are grappling with putting a stop to these operations while others are simply responding with a shrug. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis announced...

As it moves to an online strategy amid rampant increase in shoplifting CVS is making drastic reforms to adjust to the needs of modern online shoppers Rival Walgreens also plans to shut 150 stores as part of a modernization drive CVS is set to close hundreds of stores across the country as they undergo a complete retail overhaul – as more stores move towards online sellers amid rampant increases in crime. The major drugstore chain has announced that they will be culling 300 stores by the end of 2024, and 600 more by 2027, around ten percent of all shops....

A pregnant Walgreens employee wasn’t allowed to leave work to see her doctor when she began spotting blood, according to a newly settled federal lawsuit. Her manager refused to let her go until someone could fill in for her — but then said “she could not find a replacement for her” at the store in Alexandria, Louisiana, the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says. Now, Walgreens has agreed to pay $205,000 to settle the lawsuit accusing the company of pregnancy and disability discrimination, the EEOC said in a March 15 news release. The company is required...

CNN - CVS and Walgreens said they’ve received certification to dispense mifepristone, a pill that’s part of a regimen for medication abortion, and will start making the medicine available in a limited number of states where it’s legal. CVS told CNN that it’ll begin filling prescriptions for mifepristone in Massachusetts and Rhode Island “in the weeks ahead” and plans to expand to more states, “where allowed by law, on a rolling basis.” Walgreens told CNN that it expects to start dispensing mifepristone within a week, “consistent with federal and state laws,” and is beginning in “select locations” in New York,...

WOKE Democrat Ayanna Pressley Blames Walgreens Closure On RACISM!

In December, Roxbury residents learned the Walgreens location on Warren Street would close its doors in January. It's the fourth Boston Walgreens to close in just over a year, all of which have been in predominately Black and Latino neighborhoods. For customers in those communities, the closures mean more than just losing a pharmacy — it may also mean decreased access to groceries, hygiene products and certain essential healthcare services. Today on The Common, Boston Globe Money, Power and Inequality Reporter Tiana Woodard explains how the closure of retail pharmacies further exacerbates healthcare disparities in the city and what options...

A Wisconsin woman took the 40 Days of Life prayer vigil to the front of a Walgreens this past year. Typically, when we think of the 40 Days of Life movement, we think of people gathering to pray for the unborn in front of abortion clinics. With the recent increase in medical abortions by means of one’s local pharmacy, the setting for such prayer is expanding. U.S. pharmacies were given approval by the FDA at the start of 2023 to provide the abortion pill. Joni Davison started participating in the prayer outreach in the 2023 spring campaign. “It’s no longer...

Thousands of pharmacists are walking out on their jobs this week in protest of working conditions. The pharmacists have focused their ire on CVS and Walgreens — mega-chains that are being highly criticized for their working conditions. The protests started a few weeks ago and have grown to a major action this week.

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...

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...

Another Walgreens is closing in the Bay Area. The location at 2190 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley is set to close permanently Aug. 23, as first reported in Berkeleyside. Walgreens would have needed to vacate the building eventually, as it will be torn down to make way for a new 25-story residential tower, part of a large development of buildings in the city. Berkeleyside reports that many shelves at the store are already bare, but plenty of merchandise is still available at a big discount. Prescriptions will be transferred to the Walgreens at 2310 Telegraph Ave. “As we move forward on...

Police in Missouri are asking for the public’s help in identifying two suspects after a video emerged purportedly showing one of them striking a Walgreens employee outside of a store. The Independence Police Department says the assault unfolded last Wednesday in the 3900 Block of South Noland Road. “An employee of the business was assaulted when they attempted to intervene in a shoplift,” the department said in a statement. Video broadcast by Fox4 KC appears to show an employee getting knocked to the ground while engaging in a struggle with a female suspect outside the front of the store.

Police in Missouri are asking for the public’s help in identifying two suspects after a video emerged purportedly showing one of them striking a Walgreens employee outside of a store. The Independence Police Department says the assault unfolded last Wednesday in the 3900 Block of South Noland Road. “An employee of the business was assaulted when they attempted to intervene in a shoplift,” the department said in a statement. Video broadcast by Fox4 KC appears to show an employee getting knocked to the ground while engaging in a struggle with a female suspect outside the front of the store. Another...

As stores struggle with retail crime, a Walgreens pharmacy in San Francisco has appeared to chain up its freezer section in an attempt to thwart shoplifters. Chains have been spotted in front of freezers at the Walgreens location on Geary Boulevard and 15th Avenue in the city's Richmond District. Store workers said Monday that they made the move within the past two weeks. According to employees, the store sees more than 20 shoplifters every day, with items such as pizza and ice cream being cleared out every single night. Video of the freezers has gone viral, even capturing the attention...

The United States is considering providing cluster munitions to Ukraine... Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi today... A US State Department report released today on the US pullout from Afghanistan... Joe Biden has a condition for meeting with Israel's Prime Minister... At least 48 dead in Kenya when a truck collided with other vehicles and pedestrians... 25 people burned to death when a bus caught fire in India... The Russian military mission in Syria says that drones of the US-led coalition are violating... Russia has imposed a ban on Polish trucks transporting goods...

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...

A Walgreens in Dallas is quietly housing a transgender clinic where patients can go get referrals for transgender transition hormones like testosterone. Then they can stroll out of the clinic into the pharmacy and get their prescriptions filled. Walgreens has sparked backlash from its customers for offering to dispense abortion drugs “in any jurisdiction where it is legally permissible to do so” and for offering to pay for employee abortion travel. The corporation has a 100% score from the Human Rights Campaign, which means its internal policies are pretty much as far left as modern-day corporations can be. Even so,...

SOUTH LOOP — A South Loop Walgreens has unveiled a renovated interior where most of the merchandise is kept away from customers — and some shoppers say the changes make them feel unwelcome. The new design at the Walgreens, 2 E. Roosevelt Road, places most of the merchandise in aisles behind staffed counters, with two interior aisles — covered by anti-theft detectors — where customers can browse and grab items themselves. The redesign was first reported by CWB. Customers walking in Thursday were greeted by an employee who directed them to a kiosk for digital shopping. A sign tells shoppers...

A Chicago branch of Walgreens has been redesigned with just two aisles where customers may shop for themselves, the rest must be done via a kiosk. The new 'anti-theft' store at at 2 East Roosevelt in downtown Chicago will trust shoppers to pick up 'essentials' for themselves in the two free aisles, but everything else must be ordered and picked up via a counter. The store, which took weeks to construct, opened to mixed reviews on Tuesday. One shopper told WBBM Newsradio their experience was positive: 'It is nice that, for the essentials, you no longer have to call security...

CHICAGO — During an earnings call with Walgreens investors earlier this year, the company’s chief financial officer opined that his fellow executives may have overstated the effects of organized shoplifting rings on its operations. “Maybe we cried too much last year,” James Kehoe said. Good luck balancing that cheery, non-crying analysis with what you see when you walk into the company’s freshly redesigned store at 2 East Roosevelt in downtown Chicago. In what was once a typical Walgreens, there are now just two short aisles of so-called “essentials” where “customers may shop for themselves.” If you want anything else—a bottle...