Page 1 of 4

Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 12 Aug 2008 23:40
by wrallen99
CVS is buying Long's Drugs and will convert all of them to CVS except for the Hawaii locations:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 442D64.DTL

Say goodbye to another Bay Area name.

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 12 Aug 2008 23:48
by Daniel
$@!#*&. Longs was the last drugstore that hadn't been ruined by an East Coast chain. I'll miss them.

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 13 Aug 2008 00:15
by romleys
I wonder what will happen at the Rockridge location at a result?

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 13 Aug 2008 00:21
by krogerclerk
This will be a massive undertaking for CVS to digest this after swalling Sav-On/Osco and Eckerd in Florida and the Southwest.
I think they may be moving to fast to consolidate their presence on the West Coast. The article implies that CVS will own the Longs in Hawaii, but will keep the Longs name around longer there. Longs was the largest remaining regional drugstore by far, I guess that title will go to Snyder's or Kerr now.

Despite industry consolidation, the prescription business is very competive as grocers and discounters continue to take a bigger piece from the traditional drugstores. I think alot of Longs business will go to Safeway, Target, Walmart and Walgreens as a result of this. Walgreens has managed to operated modern drugstores that still feel like traditional drugstores while CVS and RiteAid tend to fall on a more spartan feel. Many of the former Sav-on Drugs are larger than what CVS is accustomed to operating and the same can be said for the former Thrifty and Payless Drugs that are now RiteAid.
At least RiteAid has preserved the Thrifty Ice Cream, if only as selected locations. And I have to say I'm more impressed with the remodel of the local Eckerd by RiteAid than I am of the newly opened freestanding CVS that replaced former Revco. Previously, I was never impressed by RiteAid, and I think that Jean Coutou's interest in the company may be improving the chain.

In someways, Longs is coming full circle as Longs has a Skaggs connection along with Sav-on and Osco. I don't know which retail has consolidated more, department stores or drugstores. Drugstores, grocery stores and departments stores were once a very acurate way to get to know a particular market. But then again, A&P was once portrayed as being a bad as Walmart is today.
It all goes in cycles. New regionals and formats will emerge in areas that the big chains don't have traction and it will all start over again.

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 13 Aug 2008 05:59
by storewanderer
Don't forget Bartell in Seattle.

Someone will buy that thing, though. Duane Reade in NY, too. On a side note, if anyone wants some Duane Reade brand items, visit a TA Truck Stop. The ones out here in Sparks, NV and Mill City, NV both have a nice assortment of Duane Reade medicines, first aid items, and paper products (the paper products carry a different brand name but are still distributed by Duane Reade).

Rite Aid continues to add Thrifty Ice Cream to all new stores in CA to this day. They did it in the late 90's and it has continued with the few new stores they have opened in CA recently. I would argue that the ice cream area is promoted better in the new prototype than before, because it is in the center of the front wall and in a very visible location; you can see it as you walk in and on the way to the pharmacy. The Thrifty signage they have on the wall looks great. In the old prototype (RA 1 late 90s) the ice cream was hidden between photo and checkout in what I considered to be a very low traffic area of the store and one that few people would pass.

Image

Interestingly I just posted a list of the Rite Aids with Ice Cream by the scoop in the Sacramento area on a flickr photo.

Here is what I came up with for locations selling Thrifty Ice Cream by the scoop in that area (within 50 miles of Sacramento):

New construction RA1 Stores: 10 locations
Former Thrifty remodeled into RA1 Store: 1 location
Former Payless remodeled into RA1 Store: 2 locations
Former Thrifty, unremodeled: 3 stores
New stores 2001-2004: 2 stores
New Customer World Stores (2005-present): 3 stores
Former Thrifty, light remodel: 7 stores

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 13 Aug 2008 08:41
by Groceteria
An advance reminder that, while discussion of the merger and end of a longstanding store brand is OK in this forum, the discussion needs to be focused more on the history of the chains involved (and their specific stores) and not on logistics and current operational issues surrounding the merger. We're pretty much OK so far, but just wanted to make this clear.

Thanks,
David

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 13 Aug 2008 11:08
by Dean
The Hacienda Heights CA LONGS (Azusa @ Colima) was closed years ago...and converted to independent shops/restaurants.

I was surprised when this happened...as it always appeared to be doing well.

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 13 Aug 2008 14:40
by reymann
i will miss longs it was always a san joaquin valley staple. i wonder if cvs will keep the fulton mall store open or not. it loses money but, it's been there since the 60s.

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 14 Aug 2008 15:38
by wrallen99
Here is another story about Long's with some history and a timeline:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 12AC26.DTL

There is a picture of the first Longs on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 14 Aug 2008 16:34
by Groceteria
Park Street store, Alameda (postcard view I found online several years ago):

Image

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 14 Aug 2008 16:45
by Dean
Info from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longs_Drugs

Interesting:
It was founded in 1938 by brothers Thomas and Joseph Long (son-in-law of Marion Barton Skaggs, co-founder of Safeway Inc.).

The chain never had an apostrophe...either LONG'S or LONGS'...as VONS (VON'S) originally did!

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 15 Aug 2008 00:48
by justin karimzad
Groceteria wrote:Park Street store, Alameda (postcard view I found online several years ago):

Image
This one had me confused for a while. The Longs on Park Street was actually a market, while the Longs Drugs was actually on Webster Street, and I found a postcard with that one in the same place you found the other one;
http://www.alamedainfo.com/Webster_Stre ... _C6786.jpg
Again, no offense; that was an honest mistake, as they both read "Longs" nearly identically. In fact, if you hadn't reminded me of those online postcards, I wouldn't have remembered them.

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 15 Aug 2008 00:50
by javelin
Longs has a very unique store in the outdoor mall (which itself is unique, it resembles a European shopping plaza) in Downtown San Diego, the smallest Longs I've ever seen. I wonder if that one will close as well.

Anyone remember when CVS used to have stores inside indoor malls?

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 15 Aug 2008 00:56
by romleys
Good old KRON 4...
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?titl ... 1274168794

That guy with the Wheaties had sure looks familiar:P

Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Posted: 15 Aug 2008 02:17
by J-Man
Longs has a very unique store in the outdoor mall (which itself is unique, it resembles a European shopping plaza) in Downtown San Diego, the smallest Longs I've ever seen. I wonder if that one will close as well.
I believe you're referring to the Longs Pharmacy in Horton Plaza. They use the "Pharmacy" name (instead of Longs Drugs) for their smaller format stores in places that can't accommodate a full-scale store. I've seen them in several other locations as well, but I can't remember where off the top of my head.

If I recall correctly, the one at Horton Plaza used to (and maybe still does) have a Thrifty-like ice cream counter where they served Dreyer's ice cream.