Health

MSNBC - Walgreens’ announcement Tuesday that it plans to shutter 1,200 locations over the next three years made headlines, but that doesn’t mean it was a surprise. The company is losing money and indicated a significant closure announcement was coming this past summer. And among pharmacies large and small, Walgreens is not the exception; it’s the rule. CVS announced it would close 300 locations earlier this year. Rite-Aid has shut down hundreds of locations since filing for bankruptcy in 2023. Independent pharmacists face an existential crisis, with many saying they are struggling to keep their doors open. In the first eight months of 2024, more than 2,000 pharmacies across the U.S. closed, according to research conducted by Ben Jolley, a fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project (where, disclosure, I am on staff). That number is almost evenly divided between independent pharmacies and corporate chains, with rural America hit particularly hard.

Fewer people are turning to visiting big-name pharmacies than they did in the past.The woes facing pharmacies have little to do with either shoplifting or stores locking up products to prevent shoplifting. Walgreens and other pharmacies’ struggles reflect the financial headwinds besetting the sector, which is reeling under the combined pressure from pharmacy benefit managers, changing consumer retail habits and, when it comes to the giant corporate chains, disastrous expansions. More