CVS To Increase Retail Footprint After 4 Years Of Shrinking Its Store Count
After years of contraction, the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain has found the prescription to increase its store count in 2026.
CVS Health Corp. will open around 60 new stores this year and has plans to shutter just a few dozen, Bloomberg reported. Among the new locations will be 20 pharmacy-only stores, each around 3K SF.
The retailer closed more than 1,100 stores between 2022 and 2025 as health insurance companies slashed prescription reimbursement rates and consumers turned to other options. CVS opened fewer than 200 new stores during that time. The chain had around 9,000 retail pharmacy locations at the end of 2025.
By optimizing its footprint and renegotiating contracts with insurers, CVS officials expect the profitability of its pharmacies could grow by up to 1% annually. The chain’s previous projection had the pharmacy business declining by 5% per year.
“Our relentless pursuit of driving savings and delivering the lowest possible net cost to our clients and their members is a critical check on the monopolistic tendencies of branded drug manufacturers,” CVS Health Chairman and CEO David Joyner said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in February.
On Monday in Chicago, CVS unveiled the first of its apothecary-style, pharmacy-only locations. The full-service pharmacy offers a limited selection of over-the-counter products and will give customers the opportunity to speak directly with pharmacists.
“Our new, pharmacy-only locations allow our pharmacy teams to continue to build relationships with patients – their friends and neighbors – and provide on the ground pharmacy care in communities that need us,” CVS Health President of Pharmacy and Consumer Wellness Len Shankman said in a statement.
Independent pharmacies and retail chains like Walgreens and Rite Aid also saw store numbers decline over the last few years. Locations closed at a rate of more than one per day during the year leading up to June 2024, according to a report from the National Community Pharmacists Association.
Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy in October 2023 and closed its remaining locations last year. In October 2024, Walgreens announced plans to close 1,200 stores over the following three years.
But Bloomberg reported Walgreens decreased its planned closings to fewer than 100 locations this year.
The chain’s parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance, was taken private last year in a $10B acquisition by New York-based private equity firm Sycamore Partners.
The pharmacy chain will also shutter a 500K SF distribution center in Houston this summer and eliminate 159 jobs. Walgreens will consolidate the services of the closed location at a distribution center south of Dallas.
