Walgreens to shut 7th San Francisco store since early 2019

Walgreens is closing another store in downtown San Francisco. The 730 Market St. store's last day of business will be March 3. Walgreens is closing another store in downtown San Francisco. The 730 Market St. store's last day of business will be March 3. Photo: Lisa Poole / Associated Press Photo: Lisa Poole / Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Walgreens to shut 7th San Francisco store since early 2019 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Walgreens is shuttering a store that's been filling prescriptions and selling medications and sundries in downtown San Francisco for 21 years.

The 730 Market St. store's last day of business will be Tuesday, March 3. It's at least the seventh location in the city to be closed by the drugstore chain since the beginning of 2019.

Other San Francisco stores that closed are:

320 Bay St.

100 Sansome St.

116 New Montgomery St.

845 Market St. (Westfield Mall)

3801 Third St. (Bayview Plaza)

1979 Mission St. (next to 16th Street BART station)

Company spokeswoman Alexandra Brown said Thursday that the decision to shut the 730 Market St. store was not easy, but — as in the case of the other stores — was necessary to cut costs.

"As previously announced, we are undertaking a transformational cost management program to accelerate the ongoing transformation of our business, enable investments in key areas and to become a more efficient enterprise," she wrote in an email.

Under the program, Walgreens is shuttering 200 stores nationally, "less than 3 percent of our stores overall," Brown says.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, the parent company of the drug chain, was the worst performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2019.

Brown said the 730 Market St. store customers' prescription files will automatically transfer to the Walgreens at 825 Market St. Pharmacy patients will receive a letter in the mail regarding their prescription records.

She said Walgreens expects to place most of the closed store's employees at other area stores.

Brown dismissed reports that other nearby Walgreens were closing.

An SFGATE editor saw employees of the 456 Mission St. store tearing down shelving and aisles empty of products, but Brown said they were just clearing Valentine's Day inventory.

A Reddit post with a photo purporting to show barren shelves at a Walgreens at 1496 Market St. said stock was being removed due to rampant shoplifting.

Brown acknowledged shoplifting has been an issue at the store.

"We are striving to balance product inventory and meet the needs of our customers, and have taken a number of steps to help curtail and prevent theft at this store location," she said without providing specifics.

The company has no plans to close either store at this time, Brown said.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate