Now is the to buy anything from Walgreens since the store you most frequent could be one of the locations included in the closing of 76 this year The Los Angeles Times reported.
Walgreens hopes the move will increase the revenue it receives $50 million each year.
"We won't be confirming those locations until we've notified employees at the stores first," said spokesman Michael Polzin, a spokesman at Walgreens said in a statement The Times reported.
"While we seize the opportunity for store growth as the population ages and consumers look to community pharmacy for their healthcare needs, we also continue to focus on optimizing our assets and organization to position Walgreens for our future as a global company," Greg Wasson CEO at Walgreens said in a statement The Times reported.
The retailers also plans to continuing selling tobacco products, which leaves one of the two major pharmacy companies with the product in its inventory since CVS Caremark plans to take them off shelves on or before Oct. 1.
"We have been evaluating this product category for some time to balance the choices our customers expect from us, with their ongoing health needs," Walgreens said in a statement Feb. 5 Politico reported. "We will continue to evaluate the choice of products our customers want, while also helping to educate them and providing smoking cessation products and alternatives that help to reduce the demand for tobacco products," Politico said in the statement.
Tobacco products brought CVS $1.5 billion annually. The retailer expects $130 billion this year.
"Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health," Larry Merlo, president and CEO at CVS Caremark previously told Politico. "Put simply, the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose," Merlo told Politico.
