CVS stores closing down permanently: Pharmacy chain announces up to 900 stores will shutter in 2024
CVS stores are closing permanently: pharmacy chain announces that up to 900 stores will close by 2024
- CVS is making drastic reforms to adapt to the needs of modern online shoppers
- Rival Walgreens also plans to close 150 stores as part of a modernization drive
Next year, hundreds of pharmacies will close across the country as CVS prepares to make a massive change in strategy.
The drugstore chain has announced that approximately 300 stores will close by 2024 under a new ‘retail footprint strategy’.
The changes are part of a wider plan to close 900 stores over three years as the pharmacy adapts to more customers buying online.
The expected closures would affect nearly 10 percent of the total 9,500 stores nationwide — and come as rivals Rite Aid and Walgreens make similar moves to shutter locations.
A CVS store in Brooklyn, New York, in 2023. CVS announced it would close about 300 stores a year for three years as part of an adjustment to digital shopping trends
The decision to close stores was first announced in November 2021 as part of an effort to focus on digital growth.
It was expected that physical locations would close from 2022, while the remaining stores would transition to ‘care destinations’, offering injections and tests, among other things.
The decision initially caused share prices to rise 2.81 percent, an increase of around 40 percent over the year.
CVS declined to share specific details of stores that would close.
In March of this year, the chain closed locations in Des Moines, Iowa, Houston, Missouri and Tallahassee.
A CVS spokesperson acknowledged that “many factors” go into the decision to close a store.
She said at that time, current employees would be offered the opportunity to continue working at CVS.
Another store closed today in Albany, New York. The chain did not give a reason.
Other pharmacy chains have announced multiple store closures in recent months.
Rite Aid announced earlier this month that it will close two more stores, following the closure of 25 stores earlier this year. reports the company is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Rite Aid predicts it will incur “approximately $650 million to $680 million” in losses next year.
Matthew Schroeder, Rite Aid’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, said in a quarterly earnings call: “We are constantly looking at the performance of stores, especially stores that don’t have many leases left, and determining whether we have an opportunity to improve the continue to maximize profitability and fleet efficiency.
“I would expect us to continue to do that.”
An employee worked at a CVS store in 2018. The chain’s share price rose following the 2021 announcement that stores would be closed as part of a strategy change
Walgreens also closed a store in Berkeley, CA on August 23 this year.
The chain plans to close 150 stores as part of a cost-cutting strategy while the remaining locations are upgraded.