Eckerd will close local store

Drug retailer in Walton's Corner will shut down next month as part of firm's national cost-cutting effort

Web posted March 4, 2000

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By Damon Cline
Staff Writer

Eckerd will close its Walton Way Extension drugstore in late April as part of a cost-cutting program by parent company J.C. Penney Co.

The store is one of two area locations being eliminated from the company's 2,900-store network. The other store, at 3206 Peach Orchard Road, closed last month.

Employees at the Walton Way Extension store, in Walton's Corner shopping center, said the pharmacy will close on or about March 19.

Prescription information will be forwarded to stores at 2803 Wrightsboro Road or 3874 Washington Road. Prescriptions from the Peach Orchard Road location were forwarded to 2501 Tobacco Road.

The Florida-based drugstore chain, citing heavy call volume, released information about store closings on its Web site.

Dallas-based J.C. Penney said it will close 45 Penney stores and 289 Eckerds nationwide. Penney's locations targeted for closure have not been released.

Eckerd closings were mostly limited to older, ``in-line'' stores at strip malls and shopping centers. That type of low-volume store was replaced several years ago by the company's new ``stand-alone'' prototype that, at 11,000 square feet, is double the size of existing stores and features everything from drive-through prescription service to large general merchandise departments.

The company said it plans to transfer affected employees to other stores. However, workers at the Walton Way Extension store, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the drugstore chain does not have enough open positions for everyone.

The closings are part of a restructuring plan that will cost parent company J.C. Penney $530 million, with the intention of trimming operating costs and bolstering profits.

Penney's earnings topped $1 billion in 1994 but have tumbled since then. On Thursday, the company reported annual earnings of $336 million for the year that ended Jan. 29.

In 1999, drugstores accounted for 38.2 percent of Penney's sales, but only 15.4 percent of operating income.

As part of the restructuring, the Plano, Texas-based company also will close 40-45 department stores, eliminate an unspecified number of jobs, consolidate corporate functions and centralize purchases of supplies and services.

Penney operates about 1,150 department stores nationwide.

Reach Damon Cline at (706) 823-3486.