Walgreens said Monday it will 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 past year.
Parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance didn’t announce which stores it will close.
That would mean closing about 15% of its 8,500 stores across the country.
The company operates three locations in Henderson—a store at Second and Green streets that opened about 20 years ago and two former Rite-Aid stores that were among 1,900 that Walgreens purchased in 2018.
The three Henderson locations are in relatively close proximity. The store at Fifth and Green streets is just three blocks from the original Walgreens at Second and Green, while the location at Klutey Park Plaza and outer Second Street is one mile away.
Walgreens said it planned to “redeploy” many of the employees from closed stores to those that remain open.
The company on Monday said its U.S. pharmacy same-store sales were up 8.3% for the fourth quarter that ended Aug. 30 compared with the same period a year ago.
Nonetheless, it posted a $3 billion net loss for the quarter because of writedowns related to a Chinese pharmaceutical chain and a home health care provider. That compared with a $180 million loss in the same period last year.
The $8.6 billion net loss for the most recent fiscal year was up from a $3.1 billion net loss a year ago.
Walgreens said in June that it planned to close 300 stores. It said Monday that the 1,200 planned closures over the next three years will include those 300.
In June, Walgreens reported that about one in four of its stores was unprofitable, according to news reports.
Large pharmacy chains have been under intense financial pressure in recent years, with CVS closing several hundred stores and Rite-Aid having just emerged from a bankruptcy reorganization that began a year ago while also closing hundreds of stores.
News reports say that they have been facing headwinds ranging from reduced compensation from health insurance companies for filling prescriptions to competition from Walmart, Target, dollar stores and Amazon for the general merchandise they sell.
Tim Wentworth, the Walgreens CEO, has been quoted as saying the U.S. pharmacy industry is “largely overbuilt” after having opened so many locations over the past decade or two.
“This turnaround will take time, but we are confident it will yield significant financial and consumer benefits over the long term,” he said in a statement Monday.
