While reading the August 16/17 2008 issue of the Financial Times to keep up with the global political news in Russia and Georgia, and Olympic medal drama in Beijing, I ran across a story that hit much closer-to-home: “Bitter pills in fight for drugstore dominance.”
The announcement by CVS Caremark that it would acquire the Longs Drugs store chain for over $2.5 billion is the latest salvo in the battle for the neighborhood pharmacy. This is CVS’s major incursion into California and other western states, where Walgreens enjoys a dominant market share.
The most important point in the FT article is in its last paragraph: “Walmart has indicated that it is interested in exploring the creation of smaller format stores focused on health and wellness,” basically in the fight for market share (and consumers’ dollars) on Main Street.
