One-time dot-com darling drugstore.com and its Beauty.com companion site will go dark by the end of September, more than five years after the Bellevue e-commerce company was bought by drugstore giant Walgreens.
One-time dot-com darling drugstore.com will be shut down by the end of September, more than five years after the Bellevue e-commerce company was bought by drugstore giant Walgreens.
Walgreens is shutting down the website, as well as sister site Beauty.com, to focus on its own central site, spokesman Phil Caruso said Thursday.
“Over the past year, we have been focusing on building new omnichannel capabilities on Walgreens.com…,” Caruso said. “After careful consideration, we have decided to shut down drugstore.com and Beauty.com. We intend to focus on Walgreens.com.”
Some people will be laid off from drugstore’s Bellevue office, though Walgreens isn’t saying how many. Positions that focus solely on drugstore.com and Beauty.com will be eliminated. Other employees who also work on Walgreens.com will stay in place.
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Drugstore.com went public in 1999 at $65 a share, and never turned a profit. Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens bought the e-commerce company for $429 million in 2011 when its stock was below $2 a share, despite a big partnership with Amazon.com.
When drugstore.com was acquired, it employed more than 250 at its office in downtown Bellevue. Now, LinkedIn profiles for more than 100 people say they work at drugstore.com in the Greater Seattle area.
Walgreens will incur a $115 million charge attributed to the shutdown. The Wall Street Journal reports the closure is part of a larger plan by Walgreens to save $1.5 billion in annual expenses.