WPBN: Due to financial difficulties, Walgreens announced on Thursday that it would be closing two locations in Oakland and one in Richmond. This brings the total number of Bay Area Walgreens closures to more than two dozen in only the previous few years.
Walgreens and the Bay Area have been at odds since 2019, as the network of retail pharmacies has been closing more and more locations. Walgreens shuttered a total of 17 locations between 2019 and the beginning of 2021.
Employees at the locations had stated that increased crime and stealing were the main causes, while the excuses ranged from performance problems to economic ones.
Walgreens eventually acknowledged that the closures were brought on by persistent retail crime when five more closed in October 2021.
Despite Walgreens’ own assertion that the closures were due to crime, San Francisco officials, including Mayor London Breed, persisted in disputing this.
Walgreens saw a couple more unfavorable, well-publicized occurrences in the region in 2023.
After Walgreens decided to stop selling the abortion pill in 20 states after attorney generals from those states threatened legal action, Governor Gavin Newsom declared in March of last year that the state would no longer do business with the firm.
Up until the state Department of Health Care Services discovered that Newsom’s actions were illegal under federal law the next month, Newsom even started terminating state contracts. Although the policies were changed, the state and the firm still had a bad relationship.
The shooting of a criminal shoplifter by a security guard at a Walgreens in San Francisco that same month garnered worldwide attention.
The Bay Area’s connection with the shop was further damaged as a result of protests against the corporation in the Bay Area. San Francisco and California even supported Walgreens earlier this year by not accusing the security officer of any crimes, but that action alone didn’t make everything well.
The East Bay has three closures
As a result, it was revealed on Friday that three locations in Oakland and Richmond will be closing as part of a larger statewide retail closure.
Two stores in Sacramento also closed, so the Bay Area wasn’t the only region affected by closures, but it did demonstrate that the region still had some of the chain’s most vulnerable locations.
Officially, the three Oakland locations were among the lower-performing stores targeted for closure in an attempt to increase profits and reduce operating expenses.
Additional remarks focused on the economic problems, with Walgreens providing the following explanation in a statement on Friday:
“Our retail pharmacy business is central to our go-forward business strategy. However, increased regulatory and reimbursement pressures are weighing on our ability to cover the costs associated with rent, staffing, and supply needs.
“It is never an easy decision to close a store. We know that our stores are important to the communities that we serve, and therefore do everything possible to improve the store performance. When closures are necessary, like those in the Bay Area, we will work in partnership with community stakeholders to minimize customer disruptions.”
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However, new closures in the Bay Area did not surprise anyone.
When the stores formally close next month, Oakland will have just six Walgreens left, while Richmond, a metropolis of more than 100,000 residents, will have none at all. It is anticipated that further closure sites will be revealed shortly.
