A dozen Walgreens stores to close in San Francisco
Bilt CEO Ankur Jain explains how members can use their FSA/HSA accounts to shop at Walgreens.
Walgreens will permanently close 12 of its San Francisco locations.
Golden City residents will see 12 stores that Walgreens has chosen to stop serving shoppers at the end of February, the drugstore chain confirmed Monday.
The addresses of the affected San Francisco stores are 1201 Taraval Street, 3201 Divisadero Street, 1363 Divisadero Street, 825 Market Street, 1750 Noriega Street, 5280 Geary Boulevard, 1524 Polk Street, 1301 Franklin Street, 1189 Ocean Avenue and 5300 3rd Street. Walgreens.
in Homestead, Fla. in the Walgreens store (Joe Radle/Getty Images/File)
The impending closures have already been reported. CBS News Bay Area and other local media.
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“Closing a store is never an easy decision,” Walgreens said in a statement to FOX Business. “We know our stores are important to the communities we serve, and that’s why we do everything we can to improve store performance. When closings are necessary, like here in San Francisco, we work with community stakeholders to minimize customer disruption.”
The move to close the 12 locations is related to “increased regulatory and reimbursement pressures,” which the pharmacy store chain said is “focused on our ability to cover costs related to rent, staffing and supply needs.”
It also said the retail pharmacy business is “central to our ongoing business strategy”.
Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said in October that the company will “focus on stabilizing retail pharmacy by optimizing our footprint, controlling operating costs, improving cash flow and profitability to support dividends and secure patient access for the future” in fiscal 2025.
A Walgreens store in Louisville, Ky. (Luke Charette/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)
The pharmacy chain said at the time that efforts to revamp its footprint would include about 1,200 stores to be closed over a three-year period.
Walgreens to close 1,200 stores as part of turnaround effort
Walgreens told FOX Business on Monday that the closing of 12 San Francisco stores is part of that initiative.
While discussing the company’s first quarter earnings late last week, Wentworth told analysts and investors that Walgreens has “begun our footprint optimization program and is pleased with the initial results.”
“We currently exceed historical script retention rates and have retained the majority of store and pharmacy team members,” he said. “We expect to significantly increase our store closing rate beginning in the first quarter.”
(Luke Charette/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)
The company said its store closing target was 500 locations by fiscal year 2025.
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“We expect our future footprint to support strong performance,” Wentworth Walgreens said.
Walgreens reported operating about 8,500 retail pharmacies in the US at the end of November.