Corbin Walgreens store to close in early July

One of Corbin’s two Walgreens stores will close in early July, and it’s all part of a larger plan to close about 200 U.S. stores following a merger with a European drug retailer.

A manager at the Walgreens store located at the intersection of Main and 18th Streets confirmed this week the store would close for good on July 6. An inventory control company that partners with Walgreens said the store would officially close July 9.

The city’s other Walgreens location, near the Trademart Shopping Center across from Liquor Mart off U.S. 25 E, will remain open.

Both stores opened in the fall of 2009.

“I think when they put two stores here they had planned on acquiring some other pharmacies, but that didn’t happen,” the store manager said. “The pharmacy just didn’t have the business it needed to continue at this store.”

Corbin Mayor Willard McBurney said a regional manager for Walgreen’s informed him last week that the store would be closing.

“You hate it anytime you see a place like Walgreens close, but I’m hopeful that there will be something else in the near future that will occupy that building,” McBurney said. “It’s a nice building and it seems like a good location.”

Walgreens announced in April there would be store closures nationwide. Last year, the company merged with Alliance Boots, a European retailer. Soon after, the company announced a plan to reduce costs through the chain by about $1.5 billion by the end of the 2017 fiscal year.

Walgreens is the largest pharmacy chain in the U.S. with a total of 8,232 stores. The closures represent about two percent of its total stores.

Corbin Economic Development Director, Bruce Carpenter, said the store’s closure was unwelcome news, but added that the location may be well suited for other businesses that have been looking at locating in Corbin.