CVS to Expand Retail Footprint After Shrinking for 4 Years

CVS Health plans to expand its retail footprint this year after contracting it over the past four years, Bloomberg reported Monday (March 30).

The retail pharmacy chain plans to open 60 stores this year, including 20 small pharmacy-only sites, while closing “a few dozen locations,” the report said, citing CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault.

This marks a change from the past four years, which saw CVS close 1,100 locations while opening 200, according to the report.

These closures occurred during a period in which Rite Aid declared bankruptcy and Walgreens was purchased by private equity as drugstores were pressured by health insurers cutting drug reimbursements and consumers shifting to discount chains and online retailers, per the report.

The report attributed CVS’ plans to grow its footprint in 2026 to gains made by shutting stores and renegotiating contracts with insurers.

Walgreens has said that it will close fewer locations this year than it previously planned, per the report.

Walgreens announced March 2 that it debuted a “hybrid pharmacy” program that lets pharmacists divide their time between working in stores for part of the week and spending the rest of the time working from a “centralized pharmacy desk.”

CVS Pharmacy said in October that it was serving more than 9 million former Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs patients after completing its acquisition of select assets of Rite Aid.

Following Rite Aid’s filing for bankruptcy in May, CVS Pharmacy acquired 63 former Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, as well as the prescription files of 626 former Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs pharmacies in 15 states.

CVS is also pursuing a retail media initiative powered by its first-party data that includes 90 million addressable consumers in a dataset spanning beauty, health, wellness and personal care.

“Average dwell time at the pharmacy is about three minutes,” Parbinder Dhariwal, vice president and general manager at CVS Media Exchange, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview posted in November. “That’s a prime opportunity for brands to build messages for consumers and push them back into the store and into the aisles.”