Walgreens closures: Here are the 5 Chicago stores closing next month
CHICAGO - Five Walgreens stores will shutter their doors in Chicago next month, as part of a nationwide series of closures announced by the drugstore chain last year.
Walgreens closures
What we know:
Walgreens, which is based in Deerfield, Illinois, announced the following stores will be closed between Feb. 17-27:
- 7111 S. Western Ave., in West Englewood
- 4005 W. 26th St., in Little Village
- 9148 S. Commercial Ave., in South Chicago
- 3405 S. King Dr., in Lake Meadows
- 7109 S. Jeffery Boulevard in South Shore
Nationwide closures
The backstory:
Last October, Walgreens announced it would close roughly 1,200 locations over the next three years in an effort to turnaround a struggling U.S. business that contributed to a $3 billion quarterly loss.
Walgreens operates about 8,500 stores in the United States and a few thousand overseas. All of the stores that will be closed are in the United States.
Walgreens, like its competitors, has been struggling for years with tight reimbursement for the prescriptions it sells as well as other challenges like rising costs to operate its stores. Plus drugstore chains have been dealing with more competition from online retail giant Amazon and Walmart and Target.
Walgreens reacts
What they're saying:
Walgreens released a statement on the Chicago closures Wednesday morning, citing the impact of "regulatory and reimbursement pressures" on being able to maintain costs.
"It is never an easy decision to close a store," the statement read. "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 here in Chicago, we will work in partnership with community stakeholders to minimize customer disruptions. We intend to redeploy the majority of our team members from those stores that we close."
The Source: The information in this article came from Walgreens and previous reporting by The Associated Press.