Walgreens and CVS Are Trying to Fix America’s Flailing Pharmacies
Experimenting with new layouts, the chains are emphasizing health and wellness to boost sagging performance.
A customer uses the pharmacy check-in at a Walgreens pilot store in Aubrey, Texas.
Photographer: Desiree Rios/Bloomberg
The aisles of US drugstores are filled with locked cabinets full of toothpaste, shampoo and makeup. Patients wait in line for prescriptions at the rear of the store, where staffing is often thin and harried pharmacists rush through consultations while juggling phone calls.
None of it is working. Pharmacy profit margins are falling at the biggest chains, CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., which has resumed trying to unload the Boots international chain of drugstores, Bloomberg recently reported. Once a fierce competitor, Rite Aid Corp. declared bankruptcy in October. A key problem for drugstores is the front of the store, where competition and inflation are making it harder to turn a profit.