MILWAUKEE — The Walgreens store at 26th and National in Milwaukee will close on November 3, TMJ4 News has learned.
"It is never an easy decision to close a store," a Walgreens spokesperson told TMJ4. "We know that our stores are important to the communities that we serve, and therefore do everything possible to improve the store performance."
The spokesperson cited "increased regulatory and reimbursement pressures" as factors that impacted Walgreens' ability to cover costs associated with rent, staffing, and supplies at the 26th and National location.
"When closures are necessary, like this in Milwaukee, we will work in partnership with community stakeholders to minimize customer disruptions," the spokesperson told TMJ4. "We intend to redeploy the majority of our team members from those stores that we close."
Watch: Walgreens announces closure of more than 1,000 stores:
The news comes as Walgreens announced earlier Tuesday it plans to close 1,200 "underperforming" locations by 2027, including about 500 in 2025.
The closing locations will consist of buildings owned by Walgreens and where leases are set to expire in 2025. The company said there is a cost to closing some of its locations, but sees opportunities in subleasing underperforming stores.
Walgreens Global Chief Financial Officer Manmohan Mahajan told investors that 2025 closures would be weighted toward the back half of the fiscal year.
"We are prioritizing closing locations that are cash flow negative, underperforming stores where we own the locations and ones where the lease expirations are coming due in the next few years," he said. "The economic benefits of this approach should begin to be tangible in fiscal 2025 by accelerating the scope of our footprint optimization program and focusing on stores with weakest cash generation."
There's no word yet on what other Walgreens locations in Milwaukee or Wisconsin may be affected.
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