Doesn't it seem like to you when you drive around especially on the south side that there's almost a Walgreen's everywhere?
House kills plan that called for downtown Chicago casinoWalgreen Co. will scale back its rapid, decade-long push to open new drugstores to save $500 million over the next three years, prompting a loud cheer from shareholders.
The Deerfield-based company said it would cut new store growth to 5 percent a year by fiscal 2011 from the current rate of 9 percent and target of about 8 percent. Instead, it will put more resources into developing its health-care services businesses, such as on-site health clinics, which generate a higher profit margin than the drugstores.
Shareholders applauded today’s announcement, pushing the stock up $1.20, or 3.7 percent, to close at $33.29 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Walgreen “took a big step toward improving returns and shareholder value,” wrote Credit Suisse Analyst Edward Kelly in a note, adding that cuts should have been to 3-4 percent. Still, “we view this capitulation as a huge step toward realigning corporate strategy with the key drivers of stock performance and believe it opens the door for further cuts if new store returns are inadequate.”
Also, unlike other retailers that have held off on store openings to conserve cash during this tough economic time, Walgreen's move signifies a switch in the company's strategy, said Mitchell Corwin, an analyst at Morningstar."They've been focused so long in just growing stores," Corwin said. "The focus seems to be shifting toward making sure that they don't fall behind in their overall offering so that they don't lose market share in their existing stores."
Gov. Rod Blagojevich's $34 billion statewide construction program stalled again Thursday when the House rejected the gambling expansion that would have provided the major source of money to pay for it.Illinois foreclosure filings down in June
The 47-55 vote gives some political cover to Blagojevich's political nemesis, House Speaker Michael Madigan. The Democratic governor has feuded with Madigan and blamed him for holding up the capital program to rebuild roads, fix bridges, update schools and do other infrastructure work.
Now Madigan can use Thursday's vote in his defense.
"Under the current conditions that exist in Illinois government — the difficulty in all the parties working together — my view is that the proposal for the expansion of gaming today is a dead issue," Madigan told reporters after the vote.
The Senate had already approved the measure, but it needed 71 votes in the House and didn't even come close. Madigan's House Democrats previously used a parliamentary move to block the gambling measure, effectively doing the same to the construction program.
Real estate foreclosure filings in Illinois fell 16% in June from May, and the state had the 13th-highest foreclosure rate in the country, according to a report released Thursday.
The 8,157 foreclosure filings in Illinois last month was still 42% higher than the total for June 2007, according to the report by RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based research firm. The filings, which includes default notices, auction sales and bank repossessions, covers both residential and commercial properties.
Oh, Walgreens. I used to have a thing against them. But nowadays, if it weren't for the Walgreens at 47th and Lake Park, I would have no decent place to go pick up everyday necessaries within walking distance of where I live. And before there was Walgreens here, there was just nothing. So it's hard to carry a grudge.
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