Walgreens set to shutter 450 stores amid drop in consumer spending and COVID vaccine demand

Walgreens Boots Alliance CFO James Kehoe announced in the company’s earnings call this week that the drugstore giant expects to close 150 locations across the U.S. and 300 locations in the United Kingdom by August 2024. America’s second-largest pharmacy chain’s Q3 net earnings dropped nearly 60% compared to last year, citing a decline in consumer spending and a pullback in demand for COVID vaccines as the reason. Walgreens recently completed an organizational restructuring of its workforce that eliminated around 10% of its corporate and U.S. office support employees.