Both Walgreens pharmacies in Vallejo to close amid chain’s legal, financial woes

VALLEJO - Vallejo will lose two Walgreens stores later this month as the pharmacy retail company shutters branches across California.

The chain plans to close its stores at both 1050 Redwood St. and 2647 Springs Road before the end of February. 

The Redwood Street location buzzed with activity Wednesday afternoon as customers arrived at the pharmacy. Edin Rivas was one of those approaching the store, accompanying a family member to pick up her prescription. 

While he was surprised to learn of the notice posted on the store’s door of the coming closure on Feb. 25, Rivas shrugged. “They’re closing so many Walgreens. I get my own prescriptions at CVS,” he said.

The notice on Walgreens’ Redwood Street location notifies customers that all prescription files will be transferred to the CVS pharmacy store location at 3678 Sonoma Blvd., to be available starting Feb. 26. The Springs Road location will close on Feb. 27 and patients are directed to pick up their prescriptions at the CVS at 2100 Columbus Parkway in Benicia.

The Vallejo closures are among those which Walgreens announced in October. The company said in a statement that it will close 1,200 stores, with 500 scheduled to be shut down this year. Many of those closures affect locations throughout cities in the Bay Area. 

The company said that it is unable to cover losses from several factors, including rising operating costs, and reported a $3 billion net loss in the year’s fourth quarter.

“Increased regulatory and reimbursement pressures are impacting our ability to cover the costs associated with rent, staffing and supply needs,” Walgreen said in its statement. “We know that our stores are important to the communities that we serve, and therefore do everything possible to improve the store performance.”

Walgreens has been reporting profit losses for years, with CEO Tim Wentworth recently admitting that an anti-theft strategy to keep many products behind locked doors frustrated customers who decided to shop elsewhere. Walgreens reported a 23% year-over-year revenue decline during 2024, and on Jan. 31 suspended shareholder payouts. Like other pharmacy chains, Walgreens faces competition from Amazon, rising costs and declining drug reimbursement rates.

Along with financial problems, the chain is currently embroiled in legal troubles over its role in the opioid crisis. Following a landmark trial In San Francisco, a federal judge ruled in 2022 that Walgreens “substantially contributed” to the city’s opioid crisis by continuing to fill prescriptions for drugs which later were found in neighborhoods, ignoring signs of a public health crisis. 

The U.S. Justice Department also this year accused Walgreens of filling millions of unlawful prescriptions over the last decade, including for dangerous amounts of opioids, and pressuring pharmacists to fill prescriptions without confirming their validity.