Walgreens Closing 200 Stores

The nation’s largest drugstore chain, Walgreens, plans to shut down about 200 US stores as part of their cost reduction effort. They are combining with Alliance Boots in a $16 billion deal.

This store closing amounts to approximately 2% of the 8232 drugstores the company has in the US, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. A decade ago, Walgreens was opening almost 500 stores a year. Now, they are obviously making a strategy shift.  Rather than opening more stores these days, they are trying to get as much revenue out of each store as possible.

While they haven’t yet finalized which stores they will be closing, Walgreen Co. President Alex Gourlay has told analysts that he’s looking at locations where the population is shifting and moving away. Executive Vice Chairman and Acting CEO Stefano Pessina has been quick to point out that Walgreens is “as optimistic as ever” about the company and its future.