WALGREENS: "COMPETITION IS ALWAYS GOOD"
Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News
There is no shortage of choices when it comes to pharmacies in the Greenport–Hudson area.
Within a few short miles, area residents have a choice of five places to fill their prescriptions: two CVS stores, a Rite-Aid, the Wal-Mart pharmacy, and the Price Chopper pharmacy. And that doesn’t even take into account the growing popularity of online pharmacies. |
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The new Walgreen store, still under construction at the corner of Fairview Avenue and Joslen Boulevard in Greenport |
Yet in 2008, a national pharmaceutical chain identified the area as a "prime" location for a new pharmacy.
Construction of the Walgreens store—located on Fairview Avenue/Route 9 at the southern intersection with Joslen Boulevard—is nearing completion, and corporate spokeswoman Vivika Vergara reports that the store is expected to be open by the fall. While a significant amount of work has already been done on the store, Vergara said she cannot give a more specific timeframe for the opening because of the magnitude of work that remains to be done.
Plans for opening the store seem to be moving forward despite gloomy profit reports for the Deerfield, Illinois–based chain. On December 22, Bloomberg News reported that Walgreen was cutting its store opening plans, reducing spending on new locations by $500 million through 2011—twice the amount forecast in July 2008. On January 8, Bloomberg reported that Walgreen plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs in corporate and field management. Still plans seem to be moving forward for the Greenport Walgreens.
The location of the new Walgreen store—directly across Fairview Avenue from CVS and directly across Joslen Boulevard from Rite-Aid—and its proximity to so many other pharmacies has left many in the area questioning the need for yet another prescription drug supplier for the fewer than 15,000 residents that live in Greenport, Hudson, Stockport, and neighboring communities.
But Walgreen officials say the location is exactly what they wanted. Vergara explained that Walgreen, which is the nation's second largest drugstore chain in number of stores |
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The CVS in Greenport, across Fairview Avenue from the new Walgreens—the first store at "pharmacy crossroads"
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—more than 6,630—puts a lot of research into the location of its new stores.
"We do quite a lot of research because we want to make sure these types of services are easily accessible," said the corporate spokeswoman, noting that more than 100 pages of research is accumulated for every new site constructed.
"We make decisions based on the population's age, location of the store, and proximity to a hospital and other shopping facilities. We want to make sure that people can leave a doctor or the hospital and get their prescription on the way home," Vergara said. |
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The Rite-Aid located across Joslen Boulevard from the new Walgreen location |
Columbia County planning officials said the most recent census, completed in the year 2000, showed the average age of the county to be 44 years. Columbia Memorial Hospital is located a short distance south of the location in the City of Hudson, and there are numerous physician’s offices and shopping centers in the vicinity of the new store.
Asked specifically about constructing directly across from two other stores and in the vicinity of three other prescription-drug options, she said that is not a concern of Walgreen. "Competition is always good," she said.
The Greenport store is one of nearly 500 the pharmacy chain plans to open in 2009. In 2008, 629 stores were opened, including one in Catskill, in close proximity to several pharmacy options in that town.
In an era when tax breaks and economic development incentives are commonplace for new development, the Greenport Walgreen store is being constructed without financial assistance from the county's economic development office. "To date they have not asked for any PILOT [payment in lieu of taxes] or other incentives," said James Galvin, executive director of the Columbia Hudson Partnership.
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