There is no confirmed list of the Walgreens stores closing in 2026

The most-searched question about Walgreens this week is which specific stores are closing in 2026. The answer available from the company is that it has not said.

That is worth stating plainly, because a large amount of material presenting itself as the closure list is in circulation. None of it is confirmed by Walgreens, and the company has not published an updated nationwide closure target since its ownership changed.

Here is what is on the record. On 15 October 2024, Walgreens Boots Alliance announced alongside its fiscal fourth-quarter results that it intended to close about 1,200 stores over three years, with roughly 500 of those in the following twelve months. The company said at the time that about a quarter of its roughly 8,700 US locations were unprofitable. Then chief executive Tim Wentworth described a turnaround that would take time.

That plan was announced under different ownership. In August 2025 the company was taken private by Sycamore Partners, in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family. Mike Motz is chief executive; John Lederer is executive chairman. The US footprint now stands at approximately 8,000 locations.

What the new owners intend is where the record stops. Reporting has put the 2026 closure figure at fewer than 100 stores, down from earlier internal projections of around 700. Neither figure has been confirmed by Walgreens, and the reporting that carried them did not identify a named source, a company document or a statement. Both numbers are being repeated widely as though they were announcements. They are not.

Lists of individual closing stores are in the same position. One compiled list identifies eleven stores across ten states and the District of Columbia — California, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New York, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington DC. That list was assembled from local reporting and public notices. It has not been confirmed by the company, and it has not been described as exhaustive by anyone, including the people who compiled it. Illinois has the largest number of individually confirmed 2026 closures at four.

Separately, and confirmed, Walgreens closed a 500,000-square-foot distribution centre near George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, resulting in 159 layoffs, and consolidated those deliveries through a facility in Waxahachie, Texas. Distribution changes are disclosed through layoff notices in a way that individual store closures are not, which is why that number is firm while the store count is not.

The practical consequence for anyone trying to find out whether a particular store is closing: the reliable signal is not a national list. It is the notice posted in that store, the prescription-transfer letter sent to its patients, and the local reporting that follows both. Those arrive store by store, usually a few weeks ahead.

Open News will update this article if Walgreens publishes a closure target or a confirmed list.