CVS is closing 900 stories nationwide, including some in San Francisco

[Handro]

Originally Posted by twister244

With ONE exception. The Walgreens in Wicker Park at North/Milwaukee is insane. Is that the best use for that old building? No, but it's the coolest Walgreens I have ever been in.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wa...QlkcnVnc3RvcmU

Hey, don't forget the Wicker Park CVS a few blocks south a Milwaukee/Division. It doesn't use the space as well as the Walgreens but it's still a cool (too cool) building for a chain pharmacy:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/CV...!4d-87.6679007

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

CVS and Walgreen's probably don't own most of this real estate and if the pharmacies close it will be re-rented to another occupant.

Yup. In my area, I've seen various Walgreens close over the years and the buildings repainted to become anything from a Skechers outlet to a Clinica Mi Pueblo.

Which reminds me, how many of you guys see some of these? I see them here and there in the LA area.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Yup. In my area, I've seen various Walgreens close over the years and the buildings repainted to become anything from a Skechers outlet to a Clinica Mi Pueblo.

Which reminds me, how many of you guys see some of these? I see them here and there in the LA area.

What more does the "y más" bring to the table? A selection of products more in line with Hispanic clientele tastes?

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by bigstick

I have never liked CVS, they are hugely expensive on most all of their products.

Plus the carpeting is kinda weird. Can we acknowledge the carpeting is kinda weird?

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by bigstick

I have never liked CVS, they are hugely expensive on most all of their products.

agreed. even tho our cvs is right across the street we go down the block to duane reade walgreens for our big pharmacy, mostly just because of habit.

however, they did repurpose an old corner bank building, so that is cool.

i wonder what will go in there if it closes?

it was a carpet store for many years and briefly a balducci's grocery, which we miss.

it's kind of limited what you can do with the classic old bank buildings.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Acajack

What more does the "y más" bring to the table? A selection of products more in line with Hispanic clientele tastes?

Bilingual staff and popular Hispanic products. As well as bill payments, domestic and international wireless recharge, money transfers, and lottery.

[Six Corners]

Originally Posted by twister244

With ONE exception. The Walgreens in Wicker Park at North/Milwaukee is insane. Is that the best use for that old building? No, but it's the coolest Walgreens I have ever been in.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wa...QlkcnVnc3RvcmU

For sure. I used to live two blocks from that location and can recall multiple times when I've been there and overheard conversations where one person had brought another person into the store just to show it to them.

That sliding, cylindrical front door in itself is pretty mesmerizing.

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

agreed. even tho our cvs is right across the street we go down the block to duane reade walgreens for our big pharmacy, mostly just because of habit.

however, they did repurpose an old corner bank building, so that is cool.

i wonder what will go in there if it closes?

it was a carpet store for many years and briefly a balducci's grocery, which we miss.

it's kind of limited what you can do with the classic old bank buildings.

Is that this CVS?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/8t...!4d-74.0025172

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Handro

Hey, don't forget the Wicker Park CVS a few blocks south a Milwaukee/Division. It doesn't use the space as well as the Walgreens but it's still a cool (too cool) building for a chain pharmacy:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/CV...!4d-87.6679007

yeah, when i say "get rid of all the walgreens/CVS's!!!", i'm not talking about that cool one in the old bank in polish triangle, or the walgreens in wicker park, or any of the ones located in retail bases of regular old buildings.

i'm specifically talking about all of the stupid, ugly suburban-format stores they shoehorn into neighborhoods all across the city.



Lincoln Square actually has one of the better recent-ish new-build CVS's in the city. it occupies the retail base of a residential mid-rise:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9687...7i16384!8i8192

now, that's how you should build a chain pharmacy in a city neighborhood.



i'd LOVE to see more of that out in the neighborhoods, but way too often they give us this garbage instead, occupying prominent street corners all over our city:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9611...7i16384!8i8192

(and the 7-11 across the street in the example above is even worse!)

[Six Corners]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

......is still just a plain old motherfucking devil.



CVS has announced it's closing 900 of its horrible rotten stores!!!!!!!!

I hope those fuckwads are planning on closing all of their shit-acular suburban crap-o-ramas in the city of Chicago!

A vacant lot is better than their lazy-ass retail dumps stinking up the joint, because at least a vacant lot can potentially get redeveloped.

But a stupid fucking Walgreens/CVS?

those cancerous tumors stick around for decades and decades and decades, like a bad case of herpes.

Fuck that shit.

Definitely. For my money the worst offender was the location at Milwaukee and Maplewood. I want to say it closed like four years ago but I feel happier knowing it's now available to become something better. That location had to have been a grocery store at some point before becoming a CVS because the parking lot is insanely huge.

I really would like to see the Walgreens at Broadway and Belmont redeveloped. The parking lot isn't the worst offender of all the Chicago Walgreens, but the space is so underutilized and out of character for that corner.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Six Corners

That location had to have been a grocery store at some point before becoming a CVS because the parking lot is insanely huge.

yeah, some of the giant ones with those half-block size parking lots are clearly old small supermarkets that got converted.

here's one of my least favorite of those a little north of where we live:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9758...7i16384!8i8192

just look how it COMPLETELY turns its back on the major street intersection of foster/lincoln.

"you don't mind if we just stick the ass-end of our building out here on the corner, do you? it's not like anyone will see it, right?"

zero. fucking. effort.

[homebucket]

Yeah there's a few like that in the outer neighborhoods of SF. Big blank walls facing the main street.

https://goo.gl/maps/KUFcqxqHGDEkD3er5
https://goo.gl/maps/Fb74ujYgVcbEd7Zv9
https://goo.gl/maps/2sv7DFGnY3iHbsvn8
https://goo.gl/maps/rNoX4FS6dpd1JP2A9

This is probably the worst offender. Blank walls on pretty much all 4 sides.
https://goo.gl/maps/iQJ4EQy8rFyqJC3HA

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

yeah, when i say "get rid of all the walgreens/CVS's!!!", i'm not talking about that cool one in the old bank in polish triangle, or the walgreens in wicker park, or any of the ones located in retail bases of regular old buildings.

i'm specifically talking about all of the stupid, ugly suburban-format stores they shoehorn into neighborhoods all across the city.



Lincoln Square actually has one of the better recent-ish new-build CVS's in the city. it occupies the retail base of a residential mid-rise:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9687...7i16384!8i8192

now, that's how you should build a chain pharmacy in a city neighborhood.



i'd LOVE to see more of that out in the neighborhoods, but way too often they give us this garbage instead, occupying prominent street corners all over our city:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9611...7i16384!8i8192

(and the 7-11 across the street in the example above is even worse!)

No doubt, I live half a block from the CVS at Lincoln/Irving/Damen. In the middle of a dense hood, 5 minutes to brown line, and adjacent to a cool urban plaza… is a giant surface parking lot sitting 80% empty around the clock.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Acajack

What more does the "y más" bring to the table? A selection of products more in line with Hispanic clientele tastes?

Originally Posted by homebucket

Bilingual staff and popular Hispanic products. As well as bill payments, domestic and international wireless recharge, money transfers, and lottery.

Well there you go. I've never been in a CVS Pharmacy y más, but I would imagine I could get Jarritos and a bag of chicharrones or something.

I generally don't go to CVS, I'm more of a Rite Aid person for quick drugstore necessities/getting any prescriptions filled (I live a few blocks away from one).

Although funny enough, I had my COVID Moderna vaccinations at a CVS, and just on Sunday I had my Moderna booster shot at a CVS.

Edit:
Just out of curiosity, I searched locations for CVS Pharmacy y más, and was a little surprised that there are none in the core Bay Area: https://www.cvs.com/content/ymas

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by homebucket

This is probably the worst offender. Blank walls on pretty much all 4 sides.
https://goo.gl/maps/iQJ4EQy8rFyqJC3HA

yikes, that one is truly awful.


i love how this has become the "So how is Walgreens/CVS taking a dump on your city" thread.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Acajack

What more does the "y más" bring to the table? A selection of products more in line with Hispanic clientele tastes?

Not at all--it probably refers to this:

CVS Looks to Add Doctors to Its Payroll
By Sharon Terlep and Matt Grossman
Updated Nov. 3, 2021 3:58 pm ET

CVS Health Corp. says it needs doctors on its payroll to fulfill long-held ambitions of becoming a major provider of healthcare services.

The nation’s largest drugstore chain has worked for years to build an integrated healthcare system centered on pharmacists, in-store clinics and a massive insurance business. But until recently, the company’s plans have stopped short of including physicians.

On Wednesday, CVS Chief Executive Karen Lynch said the company is working with “speed and urgency” to create physician-staffed primary-care practices, which she said will be a priority for CVS as it considers potential acquisitions in the coming year.

“Primary care isn’t a big medical cost but it wields a lot of influence,” Ms. Lynch said in an interview, referring to the role physicians can play in lowering insurers’ costs . . . .

Ms. Lynch, who took over as CEO in February, said it has become apparent that CVS needs primary-care physicians to complete that vision.

“We really believe that we need to kind of push into primary care, so we can influence the overall cost of care,” she said. “And by doing that, we think that we can have better engagement, help customers better navigate and obviously have higher quality, lower cost of care” . . . .

Walgreens-Boots Alliance Inc., also seeking to remodel itself as a healthcare provider, is attaching doctors’ offices to hundreds of drugstores in a deal with primary-care network VillageMD. Last month, Walgreens agreed to pay $5.2 billion to acquire a controlling stake in the Chicago-based startup.

For insurers, primary-care doctors are valuable partly because they can play a major role in steering patients to less-costly forms of care, particularly avoiding specialists, imaging and other services owned by hospitals, where care tends to be more expensive. In the interview, Ms. Lynch said primary care influences the total cost of care and doctors can help “keep [patients] within our framework,” including CVS’s own care offerings.

Doctors can also play an important role in helping insurers’ Medicare business, partly because documenting patients’ health conditions is an important factor in determining how much the federal government pays Medicare Advantage providers . . . .

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cvs-hea...s_pos13&page=1

My guess is that many of the stores they will be closing are those they deem unsuitable for these kinds of in-store primary care services (not enough space, not needed in area, bad demographics such as lots of people too poor to pay or uninsured).

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Just out of curiosity, I searched locations for CVS Pharmacy y más, and was a little surprised that there are none in the core Bay Area: https://www.cvs.com/content/ymas

So far, I haven't encountered a CVS with even a "Minute Clinic" and they have been expanding those for some time. But that is clearly the direction they are going and closing 900 unsuitable locations may be a giant step in that direction.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Investing In Chicago

Is that this CVS?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/8t...!4d-74.0025172

yes!

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

agreed. even tho our cvs is right across the street we go down the block to duane reade walgreens for our big pharmacy, mostly just because of habit.

however, they did repurpose an old corner bank building, so that is cool.

i wonder what will go in there if it closes?

it was a carpet store for many years and briefly a balducci's grocery, which we miss.

it's kind of limited what you can do with the classic old bank buildings.

CVS has done at least one other old bank conversion in NYC: https://goo.gl/maps/WJEhAt3XM6JPuRQH6

There might also be one in Brooklyn, but can't remember where I saw it.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

CVS has done at least one other old bank conversion in NYC: https://goo.gl/maps/WJEhAt3XM6JPuRQH6

There might also be one in Brooklyn, but can't remember where I saw it.

i think you are right, but not sure.

but related -- there is an old movie theater that is a rite aid in greenpoint.