Drugstore

The American drugstore is in the middle of its biggest reinvention in a generation. After a decade of aggressive expansion, the industry’s two biggest chains are now shrinking, while new entrants from Amazon to Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs are rewriting what a pharmacy even is. The next twelve months will make clear which model survives. Where the Industry Stands Now CVS and Walgreens, which together operate the largest pharmacy footprint in the country, have spent the past two years in full retreat. CVS announced plans to close around 900 stores through 2026, while Walgreens has signaled that roughly a quarter of its roughly 8,500 U.S. locations are unprofitable and candidates for closure. Rite Aid, after a second bankruptcy filing, has effectively ceased to exist as a national chain. What was once a three-horse race has narrowed considerably. ...

The Reality of Pharmacy Retail Walk into any CVS, Walgreens, or Rite Aid and you’ll see the same rough layout: a long aisle of snacks and seasonal candy, a beauty section fighting for Sephora’s scraps, and a pharmacy counter tucked in the back with a line that never quite seems to move. It’s easy to treat these stores as convenience stores that happen to sell medication. That framing is almost entirely wrong. ...