Walgreens to close underperforming stores WPXI [Video]

Walgreens plans to close a significant number of its about 8,600 stores due to poor performance.

Officials with the pharmacy chain said they were finalizing a multiyear plan to “close certain underperforming U.S. stores.”

Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Tim Wentworth told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the company had yet to settle on a final number of locations to close as it reviews numbers from a quarter of its stores that are not profitable. Wentworth said Walgreens could close a “meaningful percent” of the locations in the coming years.

He added that the company expects to be able to reassign impacted employees so that a reduction in the company’s retail footprint wouldn’t create “a meaningful loss of jobs,” according to the Journal.

In a call with analysts, Wentworth said that the store closures will take place over the next three years, Bloomberg News reported.

“We continue to face a difficult operating environment, including persistent pressures on the U.S. consumer and the impact of recent …