Walgreens plans to close 200 U.S. stores as part of a wide-ranging cost management program it undertook in late 2018.
The announcement of the store closings, contained in a Walgreens Boots Alliance regulatory filing Tuesday, follows a disclosure by the drugstore chain in May that it would close 200 stores in the United Kingdom.
No specific store closure locations were detailed in the filing. Company spokesman Phil Caruso said Walgreens would not make a full list of affected stores available, but the closings will begin in the fall.
The company operates more than 18,500 stores in 11 countries.
“Given that these closures will represent less than 3 percent of our stores overall, and given that we have multiple locations in many markets, we anticipate minimal disruption to customers and patients,” Caruso said in an email. “We also anticipate being able to retain the majority of the impacted store team members in other nearby locations.”
In December, Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens said it would take a number of actions to dramatically cut its costs by 2022. The company calls it the “transformational cost management program.”
