CVS isn’t closing its doors – it’s becoming the company it wanted to be almost 60 years ago

CVS announced its plans to close its doors–about 900 locations across the country. While that may seem like a lot, it’s only 10 percent of the company’s retail locations. However, don’t expect the remaining 90 percent to look 100 percent like CVS stores as we know them. Because the big news is actually less about the shutdowns and more about what’s to come for the pharmaceutical retailer’s future. And that’s accessibility to healthcare across the country. What CVS does is exactly what it set out to do when it first launched in 1963 almost six decades ago.

In the words of the company mission, the goal is to “make quality health and pharmacy services safe, affordable and easily accessible.”

This is a crucial reminder for businesses everywhere: growth doesn’t mean getting bigger, it means getting better. That doesn’t mean you have to get better at everything, as many are forced to do. But get better at what matters most: your core offering. Because it is also the main reason why customers prefer your company over the alternatives. And in the case of the pharmaceutical retailer, that’s healthcare.

Your local CVS is no longer necessarily a place to go when you realize you’re out of milk or to pick up a greeting card — let alone an overnight destination to grab that six-pack when none. other shops in the area are still open. But your local CVS will be turned into “destinations that provide a range of health care services from flu shots to diagnostic tests,” according to the company’s press release.

In other words, a place where you can go for everything related to health, as you would expect from a pharmacy. However, it had become a company that wore many hats. It serves not only as a drugstore, but also as a convenience store, grocery store and in some places even a liquor store. With so many revenue channels, there were a number of ways the business could grow.

For example, in an effort to expand, it could have worked to compete more directly with Walmart, which also offers in-store pharmacies. Or it could have gone behind eCommerce giant Amazon, which acquired PillPack and entered the pharmaceutical space with its own online pharmacy.

But in a wise – and clearly strategic – decision, it chose to expand in terms of depth. In other words, instead of remaining a jack of all trades, it will focus on being the master of easily accessible healthcare. After all, cigarettes and scratch cards are not exactly synonymous with health.

While it’s entirely possible to be a jack of all trades — and a master of everything — Elon Musk proves. But he does this as an individual and creates multiple brands, not one brand entity.

So sure, CVS could have gone ahead and earn its approximate $269 billion in annual revenue, but it wouldn’t live up to its mission. Nor would it best serve its customers or prepare itself for the next century of success.

Companies, like CVS, that stand the test of time with decades in business and billions in profits are not the ones sitting still. And they are not the ones who are distracted and sidetracked in the pursuit of their mission. So yes, CVS will close about 900 stores nationwide over the next three years, but it’s barely excluding its customers.