The American retail company CVS Pharmacy, Inc. was formerly the Consumer Value Store. It was established in 1963 in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is an affiliate of CVS Health and has its corporate office in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
The biggest drugstore chain in the country right now is CVS Pharmacy. As of 2016, it had over 9,600 sites and a total prescription revenue. By 2020 revenues, its parent firm will be the fifth-largest U.S. enterprise in the Fortune 500.
Without revealing their locations, CVS indicated that it would close 46 “underperforming shops” in 2019 and more in 2020. In May 2020, CVS Health and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a partnership that would allow more than 60 CVS pharmacies to perform more COVID-19 tests daily.
The New York collaboration comes just days after CVS announced plans to increase COVID-19 tests significantly. The company said it would be processing up to 1.5 million monthly tests.CVS announced in November 2021 that it would close approximately 900 stores over the next three years. It’s because sales are down in underperforming and struggling stores.
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Is CVS Pharmacy going out of business?
CVS is one of the most well-known names in healthcare in the United States. It offers a convenient location to pick up prescriptions, get vaccinations, and shop for various other health-related needs. On the other hand, customers who rely on specific CVS services will need to make new arrangements this fall. The drugstore chain recently announced discontinuing its stores across the country.
CVS has been closing stores across the country over the last few months. The drugstore chain announced in November 2021 that it would close approximately 900 stores by the end of 2024. The store closures began, and 300 stores are set to complete each year for the next three years.
So far, in 2022, CVS has declared and closed stores in the following states: They are California, North Carolina, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, South Carolina, Maryland, New York, and Michigan. Other types of closures are also occurring in this company. The remaining CVS locations are being reorganized in August, even though they remain open for business.
CVS is about to make a significant change to its eye health services. A spokeswoman for CVS said that the business would ultimately leave the in-store optical company in August.
According to Vision Monday, CVS will have 52 in-store optical departments across the United States by the end of 2021. Since then, the company has closed six locations, leaving 46 in-store visual departments. However, according to a CVS spokesperson, all of these locations will be permanently closed as of August 12, 2022.
CVS plans to close 900 of its largest pharmacies over the next three years. This is to “create new store layouts to drive higher customer engagement.” Ultimately, this will “ensure it has the right quality of stores in the proper location for consumers and the business.” The company is concentrating its resources in other areas as well.
List of CVS stores closing in 2022-2023
According to a statement released by the company, CVS Health’s decision to close about 9% of its more than 9,900 retail pharmacy locations. It had plans to close roughly 300 stores annually for the next three years. This came in response to changes in consumers’ purchasing habits, the population, and future healthcare requirements.
The company has announced plans to build physical and online sites. So the customers may receive its medical services to ” make health care more accessible, inexpensive, and convenient for consumers.”
In the first part of 2022, CVS closed several locations; this fall, the retailer is still closing sites. Fresno, California’s CVS shop shuttered in September, and Falls Church, Virginia’s and Johnson City, Tennessee’s stores were shut down the next month.
The first store closed in El Paso, Texas, on July 14, 2022. The second CVS store closed in Warner Robins, Georgia, on July 20, 2022. According to sources, the decision was made after considering several important factors. This includes maintaining access to pharmaceutical care in underserved communities.
The company did not specifically mention the financial reasons for the closures. It may be due to the cost-cutting measures likely behind the decision. CVS has been struggling in recent years, and underperformance through store closures is one way for the company to improve its bottom line.
Before the end of November, four stores in the Louisville, Kentucky, the region will also close, as will a few stores in Tampa, Boston, and Craig, Colorado. That’s hardly CVS slowing down with store closings; on November 3, The Journal Star reported that a store in Lacon, Illinois, had just been closed.
According to the Journal Star, a spokesperson for CVS named Amy Thibault stated that prescriptions will be sent to a different CVS, the nearest nine miles away. However,
the company’s decision to close these locations will have a negative impact on the communities they serve. CVS has been a landmark in many communities for years, and its closure will leave a significant gap.
CVS aim for industry trend
The least profitable stores will likely be closed first, and CVS will put money into expanding its other healthcare services. This is possible due to the rising demand for digital health services and falling foot traffic in many of its retail stores. “It just represents a larger awareness of what the American healthcare customer needs and expects in the post-pandemic,” says Suzanne Delbanco, Catalyst for Payment Reform executive director.
Matt Wolf, the director and senior healthcare analyst at RSM noted that the evolving retail approach of CVS reflects the more significant shifts in the healthcare sector. Although some healthcare organizations strive to become the “Facebook or Amazon of medical services,”
A pharmacy is a place to go for all things health-related. It is a drug store, a retail chain, a grocery store, and, in some areas, a liquor store. With so many revenue channels, the company could grow in various ways.
For example, to grow, it could have worked to compete more directly with Walmart, which also has in-store pharmacies. Or it could have pursued Amazon, the eCommerce giant that entered the pharmacy space with its online pharmacy.
Thus they also changed part of their focus and investment from a physical existence to a virtual one. According to Wolf, who doesn’t get the impression that CVS is quitting markets so much as they are just deleting some of the more unnecessary sites,
Finally, Delbanco stated that this transformation has the potential to provide a broad range of services to an individual healthcare consumer. Customers may receive insurance from Aetna and the best service from CVS. Thus, the ability of CVS and Aetna to share information about that patient could lead to better healthcare and reliability.
Conclusion
Companies that have stood the test of time, such as CVS, with decades in business and massive profits, are not idle. And they are not those who become distracted while pursuing their mission. Yes, CVS will close about 900 stores across the country over the next three years, but that won’t keep its customers away.
Indeed, with its newly acquired focus and expanded health-related services, it could become America’s first true pharmacy of the twenty-first century.
References:
- https://www.advisory.com/ daily-briefing/2021/11/22/cvs-closures
- https://original.newsbreak.com/ @kristen-walters-561356/2659944913268-cvs-pharmacy-closing-store-locations-in-multiple-states-this-month
- https://www.inc.com/ kelly-main/cvs-isnt-closing-its-doors-its-becoming-company-it-set-out-to-be-nearly-60-years-ago.html
