Business & Tech

Walgreens Closing 1,200 Stores: See Impact On CA

Walgreens is closing about one in every seven stores in the U.S. Get the details here.

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Walgreens did not reveal which locations will be shuttered. The chain has about 8,500 stores in the United States and over 265 in California.
Walgreens did not reveal which locations will be shuttered. The chain has about 8,500 stores in the United States and over 265 in California. (Scott Anderson/Patch)

CALIFORNIA — More than 1,200 Walgreens stores will close over the next three years as the struggling drug store chain attempts to complete a successful financial turnaround. The company announced Tuesday that about 500 of the closures will occur in the current fiscal year, which began in September.

Walgreens did not reveal which locations will be shuttered. The chain has about 8,500 stores in the United States and more than 580 locations in California, the second most of any state behind Florida.

The closures were announced as the Deerfield, Illinois-based company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $3 billion. Still, Walgreens officials remained optimistic about the chain's long-term survival prospects.

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"This turnaround will take time, but we are confident it will yield significant financial and consumer benefits over the long term," Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said in a statement. Walgreens announced in June that a significant number of stores would be closing. At the time, Wentworth said, "We continue to face a difficult operating environment, including persistent pressures on the U.S.consumer and the impact of recent marketplace dynamics, which have eroded pharmacy margins."

The company announced last October it would be implementing cost-cutting measures to the tune of at least $1 billion. In the last year, WBA has had several rounds of corporate layoffs.

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Wentworth said additional cost-cutting will come from store closures rather than reducing staffing at remain stores.

The news comes following competitor Rite Aid's three-year round of closures across the Golden State. In many cases, shuttering Rite Aid stores transferred customers' prescriptions to Walgreens. Now, the Walgreens round of closures raises concerns about access to medicine, especially in more rural communities.

The full list of California cities with Walgreens locations includes:

Patch staffer Eric Heyl contributed to this report.

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