Has anyone seen Boots are closing 290 stores across the UK?

[Soubriquet]

So frustrating. We only have 2 places to get prescriptions in my town if you can’t get them from the dispensary. One is super drugs, the other is boots. We used to have a Lloyds and a Lloyds in our sainsbury, but since they closed, they obviously closed too.

We aren’t on the list of store closures yet but something tells me it’s going to go under. I know it’s an expensive shop, but it is needed in our town

Closed ours in January. Very annoying for a lot of people as the only chemists are now the ones attached to GP surgeries. None on the high street anymore. One has no public transport and is totally unsuitable if you are elderly and/or can’t walk far.

more pharmacies are closing in the UK than banks.

The list I saw was 290 branches that have already closed. I believe they intend to close more but they haven't been identified yet.

Many pharmacies do deliver, recognising that elderly and disabled patients (and those who can't afford the bus fare) can't travel to them, but they usually take a long time and deliveries present a risk of breach of confidentiality if someone else answers the door.

Terrible

Yes, it’s terrible, but Boots need to provide what the public want, as any retail outlet. Their online service is dire, the pharmacies in store have few assistants; in fact there are few staff in general. The Advantage card expires if you don’t use it very regularly.

People can buy most of what Boots sells online much more easily.

To be fair, the only reason I ever go to Boots is for prescriptions and the pharmacy, I never use the shop part of it as it's easier to buy toiletries in the supermarket and I suspect a lot of people are the same.

Yep same. Lloyds in the big Sainsbury's was a lifesaver, not least that some no prescription and non branded items were just a lot cheaper. Where did Lloyds go? Tesco expansion near me just means some bloody enormous section for toys from The Entertainer, and a 10 person queue for the tiny pharmacy at the back of the shop.

Boots is the only place in my big town to do certain vaccinations, e.g. shingles (Shingrix) if you have to pay privately. And it definitely takes the strain off GP surgeries for flu, covid and pneumonia jabs, dealing with chicken pox, etc.

Bummer if it closes anytime soon.

It's not exactly surprising - everytime I go to collect a prescription, it's dingy, the staff look miserable and everything is either out of stock or really expensive.

They also don't stick anything you can't buy in a regular supermarket or online for half the price.

I was in Boots recently to collect a prescription. Looked so dingy. Quite a large space in a mid-size town. Where were all the people - queuing for prescriptions. Chaos. No place for anyone elderly or disabled to sit. I popped in again to drop off some bits for the Hygiene Bank - place was empty. I think their long-term strategy has failed totally. They were a household name and have totally failed to capitalise on that. Their website has always been dreadful - stock control and search engines poor. Fails totally during sale time. I thought Lloyds were brilliant - miss them as a decent chemist. We have Paydens near us - lovely small chain.

Link?

I do not know what I'll do if my boots closes. It's hardly ever got any customers which makes me suspicious it won't last much longer.
The only other options within vague walking distance is a negligent pharmacist who I actively will never use, and another massive boots in the high street that's way too busy and too traumatising for me to go to. And isn't even that near.

It will be in response to customer use - I think I am fairly average in that I get most of my everyday toiletries from the supermarket. I suppose they will still do online stuff, which is mostly what I use Boots for - and I have my repeat prescriptions delivered by Pharmacy2U (used to be Lloyds but it changed, in my area anyway).

Boots has become worse and worse over recent years. We have a few different branches that I can get to. They all have lots of empty shelves when ever I go. They have very few staff. The actually pharmacy section is always understaffed. The stock they do have seems to be way more expensive than supermarkets, or even Superdrug. And they always appear really dirty. I'm amazed any of them are still open.
I'm lucky that I have several proper chemists nearby that do prescriptions, or a massive Tesco that does out of hours dispensing.

If people are using Boots as a pharmacy then it's going to close.

There is a great independent pharmacy near us, so when I am collecting prescriptions I grab something else I need in there. Yes it's a bit more expensive but use it or lose it.

Although to be fair OP, you have an alternative and your Boots isn't closing yet. So effectively nothing has changed for you.

I always used to love Boots and it was a highlight of going into the city to go to a big Boots. But they have gone downhill a lot. Big stores are are still OK but smaller ones are so crap. My local suburban high street now has a Superdrug and a Boots. Neither of them are the height of glam, but the Boots is just shoddy, shelves half-empty, poor choices of stock, staff clueless about stock. People go to it because it's dispensing, but for everything else they go to Superdrug - loads of products, knowledgeable and nice staff, stock up-to-date cosmetic things you actually want and a huge range of medical supplies. And there are two other independent dispensing chemists nearby so our Boots has no reason to carry on. I don't know if it's one of the ones being closed but it's been shit for years and I don't know what they're thinking.

I love our Boots, it’s fab. I hope it’s not on the list.

Google?

Boots was sold off a good while ago. Another great British longstanding business gone to foreign ownership. It was only going one way after that.

The Boots I worked at as Saturday girl in the late 80s bears no resemblance to the company it is now.

We know the price of everything and the value of nothing in this country. The British disease.

Oh I hope our local Boots doesn't go because it's the only place for miles apart from the GP's surgery, and even then I have to go at least two miles for prescriptions, which I can walk but a pensioner or disabled person or parent with a pushchair couldn't (and parking is dire)...

However, it is a really dismal shop, as others have said - I can usually smell when a shop is going to close by how miserable the staff are, and these guys' faces are tripping them... ☹️

Unsurprising, as they've really gone downhill in recent years and are badly-stocked and scruffy.

I use my local Boots for the pharmacy. It is up a flight of stairs and the lift is often - indeed permanently, it seems - out of service, so nobody with mobility issues can access it. If they close, they will just be reaping what they have sown.

More and more stores are closing along with banks. We'll be fine as we're London-based and even if our local one shuts, there are lots of other pharmacies within walking distance, and if I specifically wanted a Boots, there would always be one easily accessible on public transport. We can get prescriptions delivered as well, although I always assumed that would be more hassle as I would have to be at home for the post. People will have to think more carefully about where to live in future, living in places with zero public transport and a dying high street is going to be unsustainable.

I have had a feeling that the writing was on the wall for (some branches of) Boots.
We used to have two in our very small town. One closed about two years ago and the other was supposed to just absorb the customers from it. As it is, the open one is a sad, sorry looking place with half empty shelves and and a feeling of gloom. Next nearest one in larger town about six miles away is fab. Big, bright, well-stocked. So I go there for anything other than the basics.
Perhaps this is part of a larger plan to run down the smaller ones.