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

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

Post by reymann »

they have another longs pharmacy in downtown san luis obispo. i wonder if they will keep that one open or not.
wrallen99
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by wrallen99 »

Speaking of small Long's, there used to be a really small location at 3670 Bel Aire Plaza in Napa. I think it was either absorbed into the new Whole Foods or Trader Joe's there because the address doesn't seem to exist anymore when I checked http://www.bellaireplaza.com. This one was about a block a way from another Longs at 1558 Trancas. The third Longs in Napa was on the same street but farther east at 675 Trancas.
javelin
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by javelin »

J-Man wrote: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.
Yes, they still do, that's the other thing I found odd about the store.
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Daniel
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by Daniel »

The Longs at Manchester Center and the store at Fig Garden Village in Fresno both have ice cream counters. Manchester's was added sometime in the early part of this decade in an effort to cater to the office workers in the mall (Manchester Center being a dead mall where the second story was converted to offices, and the former Liberty House/Home Express anchor space was sold to Cal Trans that now has it's district offices there.). Fig Garden's counter was original to the store's opening, they took over the Christensen's Food World spot when they went bankrupt.
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storewanderer
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by storewanderer »

Longs took over the six Rite Aids in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, and Fallon, NV in 2007. All had Thrifty Ice Cream (all were late 1990's build Rite Aids). Longs promptly installed three photo kiosks in front of the ice cream counters upon taking over and threw away all of the leftover ice cream. Within a month of getting the stores, Longs had crews come in and take apart and remove the ice cream counters, sinks, etc. Within another month, Longs closed the stores for a few days to remodel them. During the remodel, Longs built a stockroom up front where the ice cream counters and part of the old checkout counters were. Rite Aid had five checkout positions plus some open space between the checkouts and the ice cream; Longs cut this to three checkouts. So Longs new front wall stock room spans the length of the old ice cream counter, the open space, and two of the checkout positions. Very, very odd stores.

The photo kiosks are now in front of this stockroom that they built on to the front wall.

These are weird stores.
Photobucket now allows for comments on each photo! http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa113/StoreWest/
reymann
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by reymann »

the longs at clovis and shaw used to have the ice cream counter. they took it out about the time when longs discontinued movie rentals.
Super S
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by Super S »

Longs had a rather small Northwest presence, and I recently noticed that the Vancouver location (Salmon Creek) has shut down. There was one other store in southwest Washington in Washougal, but I have no idea if it is still open. Both of these stores were originally Longs.

I am curious to see if CVS moves into this area. Rite Aid has not done particularly well here, and has recently closed a few more locations.
marshd1000
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by marshd1000 »

Longs had a presence in Washington and Oregon, through its' acquisition of Drug Emporium in the 1990's. Long's exited the region and sold some stores to Rite Aid. Most stores were not sold to Rite Aid, but the perscription files were. I do know that the Aloha, OR Rite Aid is a former Longs.
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storewanderer
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by storewanderer »

The store in Washougal is a Rite Aid now. It is near identical inside to a store in Roseville, CA around 959 Sunrise that Longs "gave" to Rite Aid. I mean "traded."

There was a Longs in Beaverton in front of the mall, but it closed.

I would predict that long after CVS buys Longs, and remodels the stores, if we visit any of these Longs that Rite Aid bought, we will still be able to see some leftover Longs interiors. Just a guess.

http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa11 ... 20unremod/
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Super S
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by Super S »

That would not surprise me, especially since there are some Rite Aid stores that still have unremodeled Payless Drug interiors.
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storewanderer
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by storewanderer »

I compiled photos from inside six Longs Stores in my area. This pretty much shows each of the different interiors they have going here.

http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa113/StoreWest/

Some have descriptions in the bottom of the enlarged versions, particularly the former Rite Aids. It is very hard to get a feel for the layout of these from my photos as Longs remodeled them, but they just have straight aisles running from the back wall (where pharmacy is) to the front wall (where checkout is) with a split down the middle. The front corner where Rite Aid had photo was removed and the front-center ice cream counter was replaced with a stocktoom that has photo kiosks in front of it. The walls are all still at weird angles.

So to everyone here who is familiar with CVS on a longer term basis, how do these stores compare?
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lvkewlkid
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by lvkewlkid »

nice pictures, but what is the reason for the mirrors, I have also seen some older former Albertsons in Las Vegas with mirrors on top by the entrance...is it used for theft?
Super S
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by Super S »

I am somewhat surprised Rite Aid moved into the former Washougal Longs. Rite Aid recently closed the Vancouver/Orchards store (the second one in Vancouver to close since they took over PayLess) and they have closed many of the former PayLess locations, often without opening a replacement one. The Orchards store, as well as the former Hazel Dell store (now Ross), were not replaced with new locations nearby.

As for the mirrors, I suppose they could have been used for theft control. In the case of Albertsons, there was a period of time in the late 80s-early 90s where they used mirrors at the front of their new stores, but you could actually see from below that they were offices. For that matter, Target had these (offices) as well during the same time period. I do know that Target at one time had "lookout towers" for theft control hidden in walls of their stores, mainly in the apparel department.
Dean
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by Dean »

Enjoyed seeing the following sign:

Coming Soon! Another NEW LONGS!

On Highway 111 @ Deep Canyon, in Palm Desert CA.

There is a CVS in the Ralphs center just a bit east...which I assume will close, and assume the NEW location...if the construction continues. Seems to just be the beginning...dirt turning, etc.
ieguy441
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Re: Long's Drugs being bought by CVS and will disappear by 2009

Post by ieguy441 »

storewanderer wrote: So to everyone here who is familiar with CVS on a longer term basis, how do these stores compare?
CVS will surely go in, gut 'em out... and rebuild - even stores that were recently remodeled to the new Longs concept (many recently remodeled Savon Drugs were also gutted and redone). One thing positive I can say about CVS/pharmacy is that all the stores have the same basic look to them (great synergy)... so eventually, I am sure, the former Longs locations that CVS is allowed to keep will sport the CVS look with the carpet tiles, lower shelving, etc.

I am sure more than a few stores will fall through the cracks (especially much older locations that have the potential to relocate) as have many of the larger, older, Savon stores. Many older Savon drugs were never completely converted over to CVS (the former Savon at the Redlands Mall in Redlands is a great example of this.. it was remodeled into a new concept store about a year before the takeover and still retains most of it's Savon-era aspects. )

Time will only tell...
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