News broke Tuesday that Walgreens has reached an agreement to buy Rite Aid, in a deal that would spawn a new pharmacy juggernaut.
The deal won’t close until the second half of 2016, so it’s too early to know what changes Walgreens has planned.
The company has already alluded to a “harmonized portfolio of stores and infrastructure,” a line that probably sounds nice to investors and ominous to employees.
With a merger on the horizon, it’s worth taking a look at where Walgreens and Rite Aid pharmacies are located in Kitsap, and where stores may be in direct competition.
The two chains have a combined 10 stores in Kitsap, as far as I can gather, with another Walgreens under construction on Bainbridge Island. The map embedded below shows the locations, with Rite Aids in blue and Walgreens in red.
Some of these stores are spaced so tightly you’ll have to zoom in to see them clearly:
As you can see, Rite Aid and Walgreens stores are close neighbors in West Bremerton, Port Orchard and Silverdale. The stores on Bainbridge Island will also be intimately situated once the Walgreens there is completed.
The green pin on the
map represents the CVS pharmacy in Poulsbo,
which opened a year ago.
Its presence is worth noting because CVS will be the only major standalone pharmacy chain left to compete with Walgreens/Rite Aid once the merger is approved.
CVS is a newcomer to Washington State, but nationally the chain commands a 58 percent market share based on revenue, according to USA Today. Walgreens has a 31 percent share and Rite Aid trails with 10 percent.
CVS recently bought all of Target’s in-store pharmacies and plans to begin operating them.
