CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW/AP) – Coincidentally on the day of a Tuesday morning message that the Pantops Walgreens pharmacy is closed while the rest of the store is open, Walgreens has announced it will be closing 1200 stores among 8500 nationwide and a few thousand overseas, 500 in the current fiscal 2025 year. The rest of the area Walgreens pharmacies at Seminole Trail, Culpeper, Harrisonburg, Louisa, Staunton, Stuarts Draft, and Verona are open, but this repeats a situation that has occurred a number of previous times over the last few months at the Rolkin Road store.

The company has not announced which stores will be among the 1200 closed in what it’s calling a “footprint optimization program”, but the announcement comes amidst a $3-billion reported 4th-quarter loss, and $8.6-billion over fiscal 2024. The Associated Press reports Walgreens, like its competitors, has been struggling for years with tight reimbursement for the prescriptions it sells as well as other challenges like rising costs to operate its stores. Plus drugstore chains have been dealing with more competition from online retail giant Amazon and Walmart and Target.

Click here for the entire report from Walgreens’ corporate release.