DEERFIELD, Ill. — The consolidation of chain drug retailing climaxed last month with Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.’s (WBA’s) acquisition of Rite Aid Corp. In the largest outright purchase of a chain in the industry’s history, WBA agreed to acquire Rite Aid for $9 per share, or $17.2 billion, including debt. The price represents a premium
The spectacular is becoming so commonplace that even the most astonishing events in chain drug retailing are assuming a ho-hum characteristic. Nothing new here, even if Walgreens has announced its intention to acquire Rite Aid. Put another way, America’s largest chain drug retailer is intent on combining its fortunes and its future with the country’s
As the year 2015 winds down, the chain drug community must face the reality that the coming year will be unlike any that has preceded it. The same drug chains still rule the U.S. landscape. But the content of their character and the face of the people who guide them are vastly different than in
A small group of chain drug industry veterans met recently in Cleveland to discuss the lamentable state of innovative and creative merchandising in chain drug retailing these days. The group, consisting of some dozen retailers, suppliers and association executives, concluded that a variety of factors — most notably industry consolidation and the tendency among retailers
The cataclysmic changes within the chain drug retailing community, whatever their ultimate implications for America’s largest drug chains and for the industry in general, are putting the country’s regional drug chains more glaringly in the spotlight. Indeed, not only are America’s smaller drug chains more professionally managed and operated than they have yet been, they
Which events were most significant for chain drug retailing in 2014? As usual, that is not an easy question to answer. In many ways, 2014 was a remarkable year for the chain drug industry, one in which the character of the business was changed, probably irrevocably. The industry assumed a global character for perhaps the
