Many communities have come to depend on pharmacies as a trusted care option and a place for advice. But CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and other pharmacies are pulling back after waves of growth before the pandemicCVS Health once boasted of opening or buying more than 2,900 locations in a five-year period. Now it’s shuttering hundreds, while Walgreens, Rite Aid and independent drugstores also pull back.
“There is no easy access to a doctor’s office. You need an appointment. They have limited hours," the store owner and pharmacist said."So any time any child or adult — whoever is sick — where are they going to go first? To the pharmacy.” Harms said he'll have other options in the rural area that's nearly 80 miles south of Chicago, but it won't be the same.
Across the U.S., more than 7,000 pharmacies have closed since 2019, according to data from University of Pittsburgh researcher Lucas Berenbrok, who considers that estimate conservative. Of those pharmacies, 54% were independent drugstores, an AP analysis of Berenbrok's data found. It can take new pharmacy locations as many as three years to build a customer base and break even, said Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds who follows the industry. That's tough when customers also are less reliant on drugstores now than in decades past.