Walgreens Boots Alliance plans to close 1,200 stores during the next three years, with 500 closures set for next year, in the face of low drug reimbursement rates and slower consumer spending.
The Deerfield, Illinois-based company on Tuesday said it would shutter roughly 14% of its U.S. locations and redeploy the majority of the workers impacted. “We are in a turnaround,” Tim Wentworth, the drugstore chain’s CEO, told an earnings call.
“The closure of so many stores is emblematic of a company that is in trouble and is trying to course correct,” commented Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. “Walgreens spent years building its business through acquisitions and completely neglected the fundamentals of its stores and its retail operations,” the analyst added.
In my area, Walgreens always seems empty, their prices are super high, and their pharmacists seem ready to quit.
I’m sure their mismanagement of the medical practices they’re snapping up isn’t helping them much either. I’m pissed at them for buying up one of the largest local medical providers and completely fucking them up. We used to be able to get in to see a doctor in a reasonable amount of time for long-term issues and could generally get an appointment day-of or the day after for acute issues. Now, when you call to get an acute appointment they say that nothing is available for MONTHS. I called to be seen for a sinus infection in February and was told nothing was available until July.
We switched providers and are much happier with the service, but we miss our old doctors…