Drugstore chains across the U.S. have been shrinking store fleets as they try to cut costs and improve performance. Walgreens is the latest example, with a new round of store closures surfacing after its August 2025 acquisition by Sycamore Partners. The latest moves suggest the chain is still following its multiyear turnaround plan, though the pace now appears more limited.
Walgreens confirms more closures are happening
Walgreens is continuing to close stores in 2025, with about a dozen locations recently shutting down, according to business reporting and local media accounts published after the chain’s August 2025 sale to Sycamore Partners. That is the clearest publicly reported scale tied to the newest list so far. The company had already outlined a much larger national reduction before the ownership change.
Before the acquisition, Walgreens said it planned to close about 1,200 underperforming stores across the U.S. as part of a turnaround strategy. That figure remains the key benchmark for the company’s broader store reduction effort. The recent closures appear to be part of that same plan rather than a separate new program.
What is newly notable is the size of the latest wave. Recent reports point to roughly 12 closures, which is far below the 1,200-store total Walgreens had previously put on the table. That means additional shutdowns are still possible under the existing plan, but only a smaller batch has been newly identified so far.
What the new list shows, and what is still unclear
The newly reported locations indicate that Walgreens is still making cuts market by market instead of releasing one nationwide shutdown list at once. Local reporting has identified some individual store closings, but Walgreens has not released a comprehensive national list covering every recently affected location. That leaves the full geographic impact unclear.
For customers, that means the “new list” now in circulation reflects only the stores that have been publicly identified through company confirmations and local reporting. It does not appear to represent all 1,200 stores previously targeted under the turnaround plan. In other words, the list is real, but it is not complete.
The company also has not publicly detailed whether additional closures will be announced on a set timeline after the August 2025 Sycamore Partners acquisition. What is confirmed is that some stores have already closed and that Walgreens had already signaled a large U.S. footprint reduction before the deal was completed.
Why Walgreens is still trimming its store count
Walgreens tied the broader 1,200-store plan to a multiyear turnaround effort aimed at closing underperforming locations. That explanation remains the central reason attached to the current closures. The recent store shutdowns fit that same strategy rather than indicating a newly disclosed cause.
The August 2025 acquisition by Sycamore Partners added a major ownership change at the same time the turnaround was underway. Even so, the closure plan itself was not newly introduced after the sale. Walgreens had already said before the acquisition that underperforming stores would be closed as part of the restructuring.
For shoppers, the practical takeaway is straightforward. Some Walgreens locations are continuing to disappear, but the latest reported list covers about a dozen stores, not a sweeping new nationwide wave announced all at once. The larger 1,200-store turnaround target remains the most important figure the company has publicly attached to its ongoing reset.
