After decades of expansion, the nation’s largest drugstore chains are closing hundreds of stores as they reorient their operations against rising competition, a crush of opioid lawsuits and other forces — relegating many already-vulnerable communities into pharmacy deserts.
Rite Aid, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, CVS and Walgreens have signaled over the past two years plans to collectively shutter more than 1,500 stores. Public health experts have already seen the fallout, noting that the first neighborhoods to lose their pharmacies are often predominantly Black, Latinx and low-income.
“According to our estimates, about one in four neighborhoods are pharmacy deserts across the country,” said Dima Qato, an associate professor at the University of Southern California who studies pharmacy access and health equity. “These closures are disproportionately affecting communities that need pharmacies […]
As the article states: “But for national pharmacy chains, retrenchment has been a long time coming, retail analysts say, as increased competition, changing consumer behaviors, retail crime, staffing shortages and minimal store investment come to a head. They’re also feeling a comedown from pandemic-era sales of coronavirus vaccines, at-home test kits and other products.
“The economics of running those stores have just unraveled, and they’re not as profitable as they once were,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of the analytics company GlobalData Retail. “Retailers are looking to offload them.” This piece really provides insight into another trend not much discussed – corporate consolidation. It is this consolidation which is actually driving a good part of the “inflation” you hear about in the media but which is never discussed in Main Stream media.
I recall the days of the local pharmacy. A small business really, who knew the customers and their medical as well as financial condition. But the chain stores came in with the Pharmacy brokers and have worked hard to wipe them out. Now the greed of the corporations has led to multiple issues and because the store doesn’t cut the profit margin they are to be closed, and to hell with the local population.
As the article further states: “Drugstore chains are “shooting themselves in the foot” by failing to invest in pharmacy staffing, Saunders said, because the pharmacy is the one thing about these chains that set them apart from other retail competitors. If service is bad or prescriptions are delayed, it will put customers off even further, he said.
The pharmacy giants have sought to shore up their positions through consolidation and by syncing up with insurance companies in ways that steer patients back to them. Aetna patients can go to any pharmacy, but they’ll get a better deal at CVS, which acquired the insurer in 2018. Blue Cross Blue Shield clients have a similar setup with Walgreens. Rite Aid, has no such relationship with an insurer.
Independent pharmacies with no corporate umbrella, which make up 19,432 locations nationally as of Oct. 15 ― more locations than any one branded pharmacy chain ― are also left out in the cold, industry officials say.” So what’s the solution?? More consolidation, which will lead to higher prices for the patients. If it feels like a scam it is a scam, aided and abetted by the federal government with lax enforcement of anti-trust laws. The government thereby fails all of us. So the next time you read about a public skeptical of pronouncements from the healthcare system, and the government think of this article. Just one data point of many.