I was looking on Loopnet and boy have I seen a spike in Walgreens and RiteAid available for sale and available in bundles. Some of these bundles are HUGE - like 44 million.

I checked my wallet and I must have left my other credit card some where for that transactions - yeah that's it.

So what is going on with Drug Stores in a middle of Pandemic. I would think they would be safe havens in that baby boomers are getting older. I might not want to hang out in those germ factories, but when you invest in something like this is so you can unwind so you don't hang out in that other germ factory - the hospital

Second portfolio of 117 Million also available.

My local drug stores can't keep employees. So the stores have shut down for a week. Especially the pharmacy side.

When I purchased a triple net corporate guaranteed single tenant property, it was one of those "Drug Stores". With the pandemic and eviction protections I thought I'd have nothing to fear. Why? Because a retail store is does not house "people", only products. But living in Los Angeles has its disadvantages. Why? Because the State Government ordered the "branch" that takes filed court cases and then serves them onto the defendants (tenants), NOT TO PROCESS OR DELEVER any Eviction Cases to anyone! Los Angeles got extended to October of 2022, and then if the Mayor still hasn't declared the pandemic is over, no eviction still for another year.

So the Corporation began to ignore me. My phone calls stopped getting returned and no check was in the mail. When I last stopped by the "Drug Store", the manager said, "I'll get right back to you, just a moment"! She went into the back secure stock room, want out the back door and took he lunch break.

I'm thinking that Walgreens overbuilt. They are all over the place. A few years ago they went on a building spree, no doubt financed by groups of investors getting easy money.

Rite-Aid, I think, has been having trouble the last few years and their stock, I think,is down 2/3 in the last year and 90 percent since 2017.

On top of that, I'm thinking that with the general population increasing their use of pick up for groceries, that these stores are having problems. Maybe 10+ years ago, convenience stores were mostly 7-11 or Circle K, with thousands of those stores all over. People who wanted just a few things dropped by these places. There were also many small mom and pop drug stores. The big players (Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS) decided to merge these two things. They built larger stores that combined pharmacy and convenience store operations into one.

Now that more people are getting pick up at grocery stores, the convenience side of their stores is generating less.

Also, I think that the increasing number of urgent care clinics popping up all over also will be having their own pharmacies either in house or centralized to fill scrips from all of them.

If this is correct, I'm thinking the big drug/convenience stores are going to be unloading even more of their stores. I look for these stores to either get cut up into smaller stores under the same roof or to find another niche to fill space and generate profits. These big stores likely cost over 2 million each, so their monthly payments are high. Even if they bundle them and sell packages to investors at a loss, they'll still be expensive. Add to the problem that cities do not like big expensive stores sitting empty and not generating revenue and taxes.

Of course, maybe they will turn them into homeless shelters and flop houses and soup kitchens. With those big high ceilings, they could add a second floor in them and house many dozens of bums in each one. Tents and old travel trailers all over the parking lots. Just like San Francisco and LA, Portland, Seattle and more. The one in my town sat empty for a year, sold for 1/2 price and is now a dollar store (the 4th one in a small town).

Me, I would be careful of putting investment money into one of these, just saying.

On the overbuilt thing -- at the time, it may have been a good idea. Roll up both convenience stores and pharmacies into one.

Agree that mail order is crushing retail pharmacy. My insurance gives 90 day refills and far better pricing to go mail order. And I don't have to stand in line with a bunch of potentially sick people.