The Walgreens at 1355 Second St., at the corner with Klutey Park Plaza, will close permanently on Feb. 20, a sign posted at the entrance declares.
A smaller sign at the window of the pharmacy department stated that customer’s prescription records would be available at all remaining Walgreens, including the one at 402 Second St. (at the corner of Second and Green streets). Walgreens also operates a location here at 517 N. Green St. (at the corner of Fifth and Green streets).
The sign at the pharmacy at 1355 Second St. location stated it would close at 12 p.m. (noon) Feb. 20. The store was open mid-Tuesday afternoon though the pharmacy department was closed; the Walgreens website indicated that the pharmacy there was “temporarily closed.”
The possibility of one or more of the three Walgreens stores in Henderson being shuttered became evident in mid-October when the company announced it would close approximately 500 stores in the U.S. over the next year—and a total of 1,200 over the next three years—after reporting a $8.6 billion operating loss over the fiscal year ended last Aug. 31.
On Friday, Walgreens reported a first-quarter net loss of $265 million compared with a loss of $67 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Last June, Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth told financial analysts that “retail pharmacy was largely overbuilt” after companies such as Walgreens, CVS and Rite-Aid had built numerous stores over the past couple of decades.
The store closing at 1355 Second St. was built by Rite-Aid and was among 2,186 of that company’s stores acquired by Walgreens in 2018, as was the store at Fifth and Green.
Meanwhile, Walgreens are closing in other Tri-state cities. The Messenger-Inquirer newspaper in Owensboro reported that the store at 3312 Kentucky Hwy. 54 there will close next month, while WFIE 14News reported that a Walgreens at the corner of Covert and Weinbach in Evansville has already closed.
Some other struggling retailers are also shuttering stores.
Macy’s Inc. announced last Thursday that it will close 66 stores during the first three months of 2025. Neither the Macy’s at Eastland Mall in Evansville nor any stores in Kentucky were on the list of closures the company released. More closure are planned over the next three years, however.
The Kohl’s clothing chain also last Thursday announced the closure of 27 underperforming stores by this April. The list of closures didn’t include the store in Evansville or any in Kentucky.
In October, Big Lots shut down its nearly 40-year-old store on Second Street in Henderson, one of as many as 315 that the struggling discounter is closing.
However, one national retailer is bringing a new store to Henderson. Five Below, a retail chain that specializes in products for “teens, tweens and beyond,” with most products’ price ranging between $1 and $5, will be locating in space formerly occupied by Mighty Dollar in Gardenside Shopping Center, according to a building permit issued to Ershig Properties Inc. for remodeling the space.
