That is how Princing Pharmacy has competed with the big box retail stores and that’s how Princing Pharmacy plans to compete if two of the nation’s biggest pharmacies join forces.
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Goldstone said it is early to speculate on what will happen to Walgreen and Rite Aid stores that are on adjacent – or nearby – corners but one of them will likely close, opening prime real estate opportunities for other retailers, including discount stores, often referred to as dollar stores, gas stations and even restaurants.
All of the major drugstore chains – Walgreens, CVS Health Corp. and Rite Aid – have been revamping stores to make them bigger providers of health-care products and other services. $427 billion in merger deals have been recorded so far this year between drug makers, hospital chains, and health insurers, according to Dealogic and as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Walgreens has 30 stores in the Columbus area, while Rite Aid has 11, according to their websites.
Herald wire services were used in this report.
The companies said the deal is worth $17.2 billion, when debt is included.
Locally, Rite Aid outlets greatly outnumber Walgreens, so the acquisition could give Walgreens a significant boost.
Rite Aid announced that Darren Karst has been promoted to the combined role of senior executive VP and CFO and chief administrative officer, effective immediately.
Although there are no Rite Aid locations in Montclair, there are more than a dozen scattered throughout Essex County, including Bloomfield, Irvington, Newark, Nutley, East Orange, South Orange and West Orange. Its combination with Walgreens would create a drugstore behemoth that runs more than 12,700 stores in the United States.
It comes less than year after Walgreens bought European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots.
“Due to their strong market power, a PBM can exclude a pharmacy from its network, and that can severely hamper the pharmacy’s sales”, said Turk.
The Walgreens buys Rite Aid deal faces such investigations and regulatory issues because the transaction leaves only two main rivals in the pharmacy business in the U.S.: Walgreens and CVS Health Corps. Debt-ridden Rite Aid acquired Eckerd and Brooks in 2007 but has fallen to a distant No. 3 in the business.
Under Walgreens ownership, Rite Aid customers can expect a different focus at the stores that remain open. Walgreens has about 8,100 stores in the U.S. That would catapult the merged company above CVS, which has 7,800 stores.
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On a conference call with analysts Wednesday, CEO Stefano Pessina said the company was overall pleased with the progress and performance shown in the latest quarter, the first fiscal year as Walgreens Boots Alliance, which formed in 2014.
