Why is walgreen's invading WV??? (Charleston, Huntington: 2010, lease, motel)

[Chriscross309]

It is now the age of walgreens in WV. I can count out atleast 6 that have either opened, or are under construction. They only started doing this with in the past few years.

I love walgreens, but my question is why now???

And is there a walgreen's coming near You???

Will Rite Aid have a run for their money???

[Honeycrisp]

We have 3 fairly new Walgreens within about 15 minutes of each other. There's a few CVS's too. The old local drug store is gone as did a fairly new Drug Fair (maybe 2 years old) and a large Pathmark supermarket too, when they recently went out, in fact Walgreens has a sign outside 'Now taking Pathmark prescriptions'. I guess it's a sign of the times...

[Janipoo]

They built a Walgreens and CVS across from each other in Martinsburg.

They are building everywhere, they were building them in AA County MD when we moved. Rite Aid did the same thing, built on every corner and now they are in financial trouble.

[DubbleT]

Several years back Walgreens was gung ho on expansion. They had a target number of stores, I think it was something like 6000 stores by 2010? My guess is that the property was bought and the plans in place long before you saw any signs of them building. Even with the economy in the tank they are still expanding in some markets, just not as quickly as before. I looked into working at Walgreens in WV a few years back, but at the time there were only about six stores in the entire state.

[BJC]

One thing is they want a piece of the pie! Just saw on MSN this am that WV is 1st in filling more prescriptions than any other state!

I need to go back and read the article, to get all the details.

[ki0eh]

Chain pharmacies are the box store for the sick and poor. They're going in all over rural PA and NY where no other box is building. WV wouldn't be any different.

[tbailey1138]

They are merely coming back into a market (that they used to occupy and left several years ago) in order to meet the needs of an aging populace. I've seen old pictures of downtown Huntington with a Wal-Greens on 4th Ave and heard people say that it left in the early 80's. Now they've opened a new one downtown (also on 4th Ave oddly enough) and are building a new one in Barboursville. They've also within the last year had a Rite-Aid and CVS move from an old location into a new, more visible building.

I think the biggest factor overall has to do with the baby boomers aging. These companies know more people are going to need medicine and they want to make sure they are poised and ready to get their share. It will be interesting to see if they have to scale back in a few years if they over extend.

[Chriscross309]

Charleston has a new one, but I hheard a rumor on another on Oakwood Rd. near the 119 intersection. i just wish they would diversify on their outwardly apperance.

Charleston has tons of Rite aids, and CVS. witha new CVS under construction in kanawha city

[snorpus]

All of the chains tend to build several stores in a short period of time, when they expand into a new market. It lowers distribution costs to have a number of stores in relatively close proximity, and it makes sense from an advertising standpoint as well. It costs just as much to put an insert in the Sunday paper when you have one store as when you have a dozen.

And, of course, Walgreens/CVS/RiteAid don't want to lose ground to their competitors. So if CVS builds, then Walgreens and RiteAid are likely to follow.

I remember hearing, backing the 60s and 70s, a story about locating new outlets. In this case, it was the build-out of motel chains along the Interstates, which were just then coming into prominence. (By the way, the pre-Interstate route from WV to Florida was US52 south through Mt. Airy NC, then 601-301-1.)

Anyway, the story goes that Holiday Inn was known at the time for spending thousands of dollars on traffic studies, traveling patterns, and other kinds of market research, in order to determine just which exits they would build new motels at. Then Days Inn would send one guy out in a beat-up station wagon to see where HI was building, and Days Inn would lease the opposite corner, having spent exactly $0 on market research.

[GottaHerdOn]

The Elkins Walgreens was the 2nd to open in the state (in this last wave of expansion). Morgantown got the first one. Now they are indeed everywhere.