CVS/pharmacy buys Osco Drug

Rhode Island-based CVS/pharmacy acquired the Springfield Osco Drug in June in a transaction that brought all 700 stand-alone Osco and Sav-on drugstores owned by Albertsons into the CVS fold. The Springfield store at 1735 S. Glenstone Ave. is among 35 Missouri Osco stores involved in the acquisition. Company officials declined to provide specifics of the deal.

With the acquisition of the Osco Drug stores, located primarily in the Midwest, and the Sav-on Drug stores, mainly in California, there are now more than 6,100 CVS stores.

“Acquiring smaller chains is a core competency of CVS,” said Mike DeAngelis, company spokesman, who noted that CVS plans to open 250 stores this year, in addition to acquisitions.

“We’re always looking for opportunities to open new stores in our existing markets, and now Missouri is certainly one of those,” he said.

A whole new look

The Springfield store will undergo a makeover late this year as a result of the ownership change.

“We’ll remodel the stores inside to make them look like CVS, so that means lower shelf heights, wider aisles, wall-to-wall carpeting (and) enhanced lighting,” DeAngelis said.

The Springfield store, which originally opened in 1962, is located in a 59,000 square-foot facility.

“We’ll be offering the same products and services that customers have been relying on that location for,” he said, noting that product offerings will likely be expanded in the health and beauty categories.

Pharmacy sales account for 70 percent of CVS’ revenue. In that category, changes include the addition of exclusive and proprietary merchandise and private-label products.

“In terms of pharmacy customers, no action is required,” DeAngelis added. “We’ve already converted the computer systems over to CVS, as we’ve done with other stores, so our customers can continue to have their prescriptions filled there as normal – no effect on insurance or anything like that.”

Taking it one step further

Many CVS locations are offering MinuteClinics – in-store, walk-in health clinics where acute conditions can be treated – but DeAngelis couldn’t say if, or when, MinuteClinic might come to Springfield.

“I don’t have any specific announcement about Springfield, but we do plan to open more MinuteClinics inside CVS stores,” he said.

CVS also will soon purchase the MinuteClinic business, which has been an independent business that rents space in CVS locations.

“They’re going to become a wholly owned subsidiary of CVS. Once that deal closes, that will help us accelerate opening MinuteClinics throughout the chain,” DeAngelis said, though he added that they won’t be in every store.

The MinuteClinics treat ailments such as strep throat, ear infections and skin infections on a walk-in basis.

DeAngelis said there is a trend in the general retail industry to offer this type of service.

“The business is a great complement to our own business model to provide immediate health care to our customers and to be the easiest pharmacy for our customers to use,” he said.

Tammy Mallow-Elly, director of business operations for Family Medical Walk-In Clinics, agreed that demand is growing for quick, convenient health care, but she said the services offered at MinuteClinics are very different from those offered at Family Medical Walk-In Clinics.

“We don’t have a limited menu like they do,” she said. “We can treat 85 percent of the average person’s needs.”

Mallow-Elly said the average patient visit – walking in the door to leaving – is 55 minutes at any of Family Medical Walk-In Clinics’ four Springfield area locations, which offer extended hours.

While the patient base includes those unable to get in to see their primary care physician or people who need urgent care, it is also convenient for healthy people who just need to be treated every once in a while and don’t have a primary care doctor.

“Our target audience would be anyone out there that has access issues,” said Mallow-Elly who is also an advisory board member of the National Association for Ambulatory Care.

“They’re not able to get into their primary-care physician or don’t want to sit in the waiting room of the emergency department.”[[In-content Ad]]