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

I too am shocked at the state of some of the Boots shops.

Dingy and depressing - a far cry from 20 yrs or so ago.

I use a local independent now - clean, lovely helpful staff, and they even give regular canine customers a dog biscuit!

Our local Boots closed earlier this year.
It’s left just one (small and overwhelmed) pharmacy in the town centre now, and apart from Asda and Morrisons with Rimmel and Collection fixtures, there’s no where to buy decent make up.

Boots has been dire for a long time, and they have priced themselves out of the market.

There definitely do seem to be medicine shortages- sometimes I get an ''owing note''.
The local independent pharmacy seems to have got a lot busier in the last few years - they retain the same staff {Which I think is a good thing}

I had a CD {painkiller} given out by a new owner {Pharmacist} -when he handed me the packet, I thought it felt different-
When I got home, I'd been given a box extra.

Took it back immediately and the look of 😬 on the pharmacist's face was visible.

They were clearly horrified.

No idea how that happened.

Nothing like that has happened since.

Exactly the same here.
It feels like Boots stores are turning into WH Smith branches in terms of quality, service, cleanliness. Even the staff are turning into grumpy people, just like in WH Smith, which makes me think it must he absolutely awful to work there.
Their website is absolutely atrocious and the app is shite as well.
A real shame.
The whole show is very badly run.

Two have closed in the small towns by me. Now there's only Morrisons left for Prescription in one place and Lloyds in the other.
There are two very small boots for prescriptions left one by my Mums and one by the gp office.
Bigger town 5 miles away still has two big boots shops.

*oakleaffy *I once got some medication in a box that had the wrong dosage on it, so eg it was 100mg but the box said 50mg. I questioned it just to make sure i had the right thing and OMG, action stations! I was ushered into the back and had to fill in forms. They take this v seriously (as it can be a life and death issue I suppose), they have to file a big report for errors like that apparently.

I'd be bummed if it closes. the three for two deal on vitamins is great and that's what I use if for.

I've Googled and the only results are on nonsense Reach Media sites or tabloid rags. Nothing recent BBC, Sky News or similar.

Google also tells me that the proposed 290 stores closing is from a portfolio of over 2500 so hardly an indication that Boots is going to disappear as we know it. Probably more likely reduction of duplication where there's more than one store in the same area.

That could absolutely have been lethal.

In your case much more so than mine, as with mine, the Milligrams on the tablets were correct, there was 'just' a box extra.

True. This is largely a legacy of the previous government not paying pharmacies the true cost of drugs etc. They want pharmacies to take some of the workload of GPs though. Have your cake and eat it.

It’s not paying the pharmacies the cost of the drugs , it’s reimbursing the true cost of the drugs. They have paid for them at whatever they get charged. The drug tariff can be slow to move up and quick to go down.

I used to spend a fortune in Boots but never really go on now. Ours is large, badly stocked and no longer has proper tills.

It's always been far too expensive to keep customers.

Our Boots is huge, very smart, full of extremely high end products and always completely rammed. It is, however, annoying that it's almost all self service. I wouldn't get the impression it was about to go under from our nearest one, the opposite, in fact

our local boots has recently closed down to. I'm late 40s and it was there all my life, I remember going in as a child so it's a shame to see it gone. Tbh I mostly used boots for prescriptions as shopping there was always much more expensive than anywhere else. obviously people will by toiletries etc elsewhere if they can them much cheaper, items were often double the price in boots.

A lot of towns have multiple branches, ours does and it struggles to staff both, so I suspect one will go.

Our Boots was up for closure, but for some reason, they decided to leave it be. We've got another couple of pharmacies in town, but I do love Boots for the Soap & Glory range, and the Lee Stafford hair range. It's a shame if they're closing these branches if there aren't accessible options available to people who don't drive or can't manage. I've used pharmacy 2u in the past, so it's a good option if you can get it set up online.

The one near me in Harleston in Norfolk is small and very poorly stocked. Only one person on the till and the outside badly needs painting!!!

Do you know how to Google?

OK here I've done it for you

https://metro.co.uk/2024/09/28/full-list-290-boots-uk-stores-closures-revealed-21696229/

In my view, it's yet another example of the capitalist society we live in. Everything is about profit. Some things should be classed as a public service and dispensaries is one such thing. People need to access their meds easily and with Lloyds gone, Boots is the main medical supplier to the general public.

i have to admit, though, looking at the list of closures, Chelmsford has 4 separate branches on the list. The bean counters will look at that and say, we can't afford to run 4 different branches with 4 lots of fixed costs. Chelmsford isn't a sleepy little rural town with no bus services, so they are having to make difficult choices.

where I live, there are 2 Boots in 2 local towns (semi-rural locations) but no bus services in the area, so that's likely why they have not put them on the closure list.

They were taken over by American chemist Walgreens in 2014.this seems to happen to any successful U.K. companies - taken over then screwed for the max profit.
also everyone shopping online

My local Boots is really bad, I work in city which has a good branch. I don’t wfh so need to go in person for my prescriptions. There is one local where I can get to after work and it sometimes shuts early due to lack of staff.

The pharmacies are all failing due to the contract not covering the cost of drugs. I’ve had the wrong drugs and the wrong dosage but from different pharmacies including Boots. I think just very busy.

Well this is disappointing to hear. I am visiting the UK next year after over a decade away, and was looking forward to a trip to Boots. Please don’t tell me Marks food hall has gone to shit too or I might not bother!

I'm sure ours will be on the list. Boots near me closed their pharmacy a few years ago and refurbished, but since then its had such an eerie vibe about it - hardly any customers and just one member of staff standing by the self service tills. Like other areas we are in desperate need of a pharmacy - the cosmetics we can buy elsewhere. I mostly go to sample to perfumes.

That was my experience of Boots too earlier this year - they were the only one in my town that had the particular prescription I needed in stock (I later found I could get it online but it was a lot more expensive and it'd have taken longer to get it and I really needed to start it ASAP) - they didn't have all their Pharmacy Tills open and only one or two people actually picking prescriptions out the back for in-store customers (others were doing home delivery ones).

Must have been waiting about an hour in the end and more and more people were coming in to fill their prescriptions all the time - it didn't seem suited to the demand on it.

It was the only time I've had to use them (usually use Superdrug as it's closer to the surgery) but I wasn't very impressed at all.

Tend to get most of my things like shampoo/other toiletries and medicines online because it's much quicker, often cheaper and less stressful for me, especially as someone who works full--time. And they wonder why high streets are dying?