Adding to the ever-growing list of Walgreens stores closing in SF, the location at 141 Kearny Street is set to close on February 22 — which will make it the eleventh location from America's second-largest pharmacy store chain to close in the city since 2019.
In October of 2021, Walgreens announced it intended to close five more local branches in San Francisco by the end of November, citing rampant shoplifting as a viable means to create a growing number of pharmacy deserts in the city (and country). All those locations have since closed their doors permanently — leaving ominous, empty voids inside buildings that have yet to be leased or bought out. And by the end of that month, after the Walgreens at 3400 Cesar Chavez Street closed on November 17, a total of ten San Francisco Walgreens locations had officially shuttered since 2019.
Well, it looks like that figure will now be eleven come the end of February.
SFGATE broke the news that the pharmacy location at 141 Kearny Street is set to close on February 22. As for the patients with actively-filled prescriptions at the store? They'll see their prescribed drug orders automatically transferred to nearby stores.
“Pharmacy patients will receive a letter in the mail providing more information about their prescription records and our teams at those nearby stores look forward to serving them,” Fraser Engerman, the senior director of external relations for Walgreens, told the digital media outlet.
Engerman wouldn’t give a specific reason for the closure to the news outlet... but he did (in an incredibly roundabout way) hint at the fact that certain "dynamics” and "buying habits” found in the San Francisco market might not have met the company's criteria for that location.
“As we continue to execute our strategy to expand Walgreens' role as a leader in the delivery of healthcare, we are focused on creating the right network of stores in the right locations to best meet the needs of the communities we serve,” Engerman added. “There are a number of factors that we take into consideration when opening and closing locations, including dynamics of the local market and changing buying habits of our customers.”
Walgreens has previously claimed that providing security in the San Francisco locations is 46 times more expensive than the chain’s average; the pharmacy store chain also had commented that those expenses for in-store security created lackluster results.
Comparatively, CVS Pharmacy — America's largest pharmacy store chain — has only closed two locations during the same three-year span that's seen nearly a dozen Walgreens stores close for good. Perceive that how you will.
Related: Two SF Walgreens Locations Will Permanently Close Tomorrow; Another to Cease Operating Wednesday
Photo: Customers walk by products locked in security cabinets at a Walgreens store that is set to be closed in the coming weeks on October 13, 2021 in San Francisco, California. Walgreens announced plans to close five of its San Francisco stores due to organized retail shoplifting that has plagued its stores in the city. The retail pharmacy chain has already shuttered 10 stores in the city since 2019. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
