- Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid are drugstore chains that sell everything from groceries to greeting cards.
- All three stores have pharmacies that offer services like flu shots.
- They each have a rewards program that can earn shoppers major discounts.
- When we visited neighboring locations of Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid in Westchester, New York, we found that the atmospheres of the three stores were drastically different.
Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid are everywhere you go. Some towns have just one of the drugstores, others have two, and some — like Westchester, New York — have all three less than five minutes apart from one another.
Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid carry everything from groceries and cosmetics to household supplies and greeting cards. Each store has a pharmacy, and the chains all have rewards cards that offer serious savings.
Both Walgreens and CVS operate between 8,000 and 10,000 stores in the United States, and Rite Aid has about 2,500.
But the stores' atmospheres couldn't be more different. When we visited a Walgreens in Westchester, it was bright, clean, and well organized. Upbeat music was playing, and plenty of people were shopping around.
When we visited a CVS store just five minutes away, it was dark and messy. There were dark gray carpeted floors, empty soda cans, old shopping lists, and no shortage of empty shelves. Security TVs loomed over every aisle, and it was eerily quiet.
Rite Aid fell in the middle — it was mostly clean, but there were bins and shopping carts everywhere and a lot of empty shelves. It was also very quiet.
Same-store sales were down by 1.2% at Walgreens in the second quarter, while at CVS, which is in the midst of a merger with Aetna, same-store sales were up by 1.6% in the most recent quarter. Rite Aid saw same-store sales decrease by 0.7% in its most recent quarter.
Here's what it was like to shop at each store.
Rite Aid was the first store I went to.
In the entryway were a shelf of toys and a Rite Aid weekly ad.
Cosmetics was the first department, selling brands like Maybelline, L'Oreal, and CoverGirl for $6 to $20 a product. Most products in this section and throughout the store had a yellow tag with a special promotion for Wellness+ rewards members.
Rite Aid's Wellness+ rewards program offers almost identical perks as Walgreens' program, allowing shoppers to earn points on every purchase. At each store, almost every product had a rewards-member-only lower price.
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