Walgreens going private
 

Walgreens was founded in 1901 and has been a public company since 1927.

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The inventor of the milkshake.

Do we have to get permission to shop there now?

They will milk it dry before closing it completely.

I think the private equity partnership is getting a tremendous deal. They get a company with $150B revenue that was profitable a recently as three years ago for a song.

I doubt they will liquidate it. My guess is they will streamline the operation and try to reduce operating expenses. If they can get it even slightly into the black they can bring it back public and make a fortune. They are only investing $11B or so.

I think the problem with Walgreens and CVS is that they are basically pharmacies but they have branched out to be general stores selling food, makeup, and other non-medical items - all at a very hefty markup. Other than the drugs, almost everything else is much more expensive than Walmart, supermarkets (even Publix), and Amazon. I can't remember the last time that I bought something other than drugs at a CVS or Walgreens. If they stuck to their core business (drugs), the stores would probably be profitable.

I think more of Walgreens financial problems stem from acquisitions that have not worked well like VillageMD.

I don't think selling make-up and similar diverse items hurts them. I think they sell more of that then you might think because of convenient locations. As you say it has great mark up.

They also get stiff competition on drugs from Walmart, Publix, and online. Margins are thin on those for retailers (but not for drug companies of course).

Very interesting would have thought mail order pharmacies would make it hard to make money for walgreens.

I am amazed at how much traffic at pharmacies in TV. Our meds have been by mail, over 15 years. In the beginning it wasn’t our choice. Our medical facilities closed all in house pharmacy’s, to cut costs at 14 sites. In the last 15 years I may have been in a stand alone pharmacy, three times. Wondering how quickly Walgreens footprint will shrink or disappear altogether in certain areas

Interesting thing is, the current Walgreens CEO, Tim Wentworth, is the former CEO of Express Scripts. So, he is literally an expert on mail order pharmacy.

A full service pharmacy needs to function as a "high touch " business (customer oriented). Once a business goes public, they tend to shift focus from customers and products to selling stock, increasing profits quarterly. In order to accomplish this new mission, they move management decisions to the top. Thus the decline begins.

For years we have gotten our maintenance prescription via mail order. Only use local pharmacies for items we need immediately

We really like our Walgreens Pharmacy. We had mail prescription service once, not our choice but we went with it. I have to say there is nothing like pulling the delivery out of the mailbox on a hot, humid day and reading the very warm container of medication with the instructions of "keep in a cool, dry place". So much for efficacy. We were delighted to be rid of that service.

I've heard that private equity firms simply buy distressed companies, bleed them dry, and dump them. Lots of books written about this.

Walgreens has squeezed about maximal efficiency out of their procedures, so what do you do now?

Don't go crying to your local brick and mortar pharmacy when you or your mail order blunders, and you're all out.

Looking at a ten year or longer chart of WBA is not pretty. Reminds me of the Kmart Pharmacist I knew: his retirement plan was all in Kmart stock. A bitter man.

I have not found that to happen since we have been here. Seems like the mail center is air conditioned