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Walgreens will lay off hundreds of employees as the pharmacy chain continues to struggle with increased competition and higher-than-desired costs. On top of this, the newly private company is expected to close at least another few dozen retail stores in 2026. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? Walgreens has announced that it will cut at least 628 jobs across two states, according to communications it sent to the states in question earlier this month. A Walgreens spokesperson confirmed the layoffs with Fast Company when reached for comment. News of the layoffs was first reported by Bloomberg. The job cuts include 469 positions in the companys home state of Illinois and 159 jobs in Texas, where the company is shuttering a distribution center. Were focused on becoming Americas best retail pharmacy, beginning with improving the instore experience for our customers and patients,” Walgreens said in a statement to Fast Company. “To do this, weve made the difficult decision to simplify our organization in both the support center and with our field leadership to speed decision making and improve the service that millions of customers rely on every day.” “We have deep respect for our colleagues and greatly appreciate their contributions and are committed to supporting them throughout this transition,” the spokesperson added. Walgreens has been closing stores In addition to the layoffs, Walgreens also reportedly confirmed that it will be closing dozens of stores in 2026. While no exact numbers were given, Bloomberg says the pharmacy chain confirmed that the number of closing locations would be fewer than 100, which is less than previously planned. Walgreens said in 2024 that it had targeted 1,200 stores for closure by 2027. Walgreens will also reportedly open four new locations this year. Pharmacy chains have struggled in recent years Last August, Walgreens went private when the private equity firm Sycamore Partners purchased the company for roughly $10 billion. The move marked the end of the iconic pharmacy chains nearly century-long reign as a publicly traded company. For years before the deal, Walgreens, like other pharmacy chains, had struggled with increased online competition from the likes of Amazon and falling foot traffic that was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Pharmacy chains have also struggled with rising costs and increasing debts. These factors contributed to competitor Rite Aids bankruptcy in 2025 and led to a wave of pharmacy layoffs over the past few years, including at CVS. According to the company’s website, Walgreens currently has around 8,000 locations in the United States and Puerto Rico and employs around 211,000 workers.
Category:
E-Commerce
The worst days of the pandemic are long behind us, but the world is still reeling from its aftereffects. For some people, this has driven a dramatic reprioritizing of whats important in their lives, including where they work and the kind of energy theyre prepared to give to the company that employs them. According to a new survey, one result of the pandemic aftershocks in the workforce is a sharp rise in how much people want to take time off to travel. Younger Americans are so keen to vacation, in fact, that theyre putting off big life decisions and even going into debt. Not only could this shift in priorities affect your business if youre trying to attract young customers, but it may change how you think about your own staffs working hours. The data comes from a new survey of a thousand Americans by financial services company Empower, Fortune reports. Headline numbers from the report are that over 90 percent of people are planning domestic travel this year. Plus 33 percent have said theyre not going to wait until retirement to see the worldtheyre doing it now, instead. And when it comes to money, 47 percent of people said they would spend more on travel this year than last. Even more strikingly, one in five Millennial workers are postponing plans for big purchases, like a home, and will spend the money on travel instead. While the vast majority of workers, 61 percent, said they plan to travel in the summer, 34 percent said they will travel in out-of-season time, and 24 percent said theyd travel for birthdaysthese last are both types of trip that are likely to impact their regular work schedule, since they dont revolve around typical vacation times. In particular, Gen-Z staff, at 28 percent, said they were more likely than older generations to travel for their birthdays, and a quarter of Gen-Z staff liked to plan their trips four weeks or less ahead of timemeaning theyre more likely to spontaneously ask for time off than older employees. Fortune quotes Christie Hudson, head of public relations at online travel firm Expedia, who says that a significant share of respondents to a similar, recent Expedia survey plan to travel no matter what this year. In terms of attitude and valuing experiences over things, that whole mentality, people seem very aligned in the post-pandemic era, she said. This news is playing out as many people continue to feel considerable economic stress thanks to inflation, and amid an epidemic of quiet vacationingremote workers just continuing to work as if theyre at home, but taking a trip without telling their employer, simply because they dont want to seem like theyre slacking, or cant afford to take time off. More vacation time and more flexible vacation policy may be anathema to many more traditional U.S. employersthe kind rattling their sabers with strict back-to-office rules because they think staff labor is proved by their grinding away for long hours right where they can see them. But Empowers data shows more employeesof all agesare planning vacations. Younger workers (who already dislike the grind of the traditional workplace) arent shy about showing they want to travel more spontaneously and even postpone big life plans to do so. To attract and retain them, it might be worth reevaluating your companys PTO policy. An Ernst & Young study shows why this could be a good idea: For each extra 10 hours of vacation time an employee took, their year-end performance jumped 8 percent. Another survey showed that if a staff member takes all their vacation time, theyre actually boosting their chances of getting a raise or promotion. Plus if you want to attract new younger workers, advertising your more generous vacation policyincluding, perhaps, relaxed summer work hoursmay actually help you recruit or retain Gen-Z staff. Something to think about as you relax and watch the fireworks this upcoming long weekend. Kit Eaton This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister site, Inc.com. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
OpenAI, the maker of the most popular AI chatbot, used to say it aimed to build artificial intelligence that safely benefits humanity, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return, mission statement. But the ChatGPT maker seems to no longer have the same emphasis on doing so safely. While reviewing its latest IRS disclosure form, which was released in November 2025 and covers 2024, I noticed OpenAI had removed safely from its mission statement, among other changes. That change in wording coincided with its transformation from a nonprofit organization into a business increasingly focused on profits. OpenAI currently faces several lawsuits related to its products safety, making this change newsworthy. Many of the plaintiffs suing the AI company allege psychological manipulation, wrongful death, and assisted suicide, while others have filed negligence claims. As a scholar of nonprofit accountability and the governance of social enterprises, I see the deletion of the word safely from its mission statement as a significant shift that has largely gone unreported outside highly specialized outlets. And I believe OpenAIs makeover is a test case for how we, as a society, oversee the work of organizations that have the potential to both provide enormous benefits and do catastrophic harm. Tracing OpenAIs origins OpenAI, which also makes the Sora video artificial intelligence app, was founded as a nonprofit scientific research lab in 2015. Its original purpose was to benefit society by making its findings public and royalty-free rather than to make money. To raise the money that developing its AI models would require, OpenAI, under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, created a for-profit subsidiary in 2019. Microsoft initially invested US$1 billion in this venture; by 2024 that sum had topped $13 billion. In exchange, Microsoft was promised a portion of future profits, capped at 100 times its initial investment. But the software giant didnt get a seat on OpenAIs nonprofit board meaning it lacked the power to help steer the AI venture it was funding. A subsequent round of funding in late 2024, which raised $6.6 billion from multiple investors, came with a catch: that the funding would become debt unless OpenAI converted to a more traditional for-profit business in which investors could own shares, without any caps on profits, and possibly occupy board seats. Establishing a new structure In October 2025, OpenAI reached an agreement with the attorneys general of California and Delaware to become a more traditional for-profit company. Under the new arrangement, OpenAI was split into two entities: a nonprofit foundation and a for-profit business. The restructured nonprofit, the OpenAI Foundation, owns about one-fourth of the stock in a new for-profit public benefit corporation, the OpenAI Group. Both are headquartered in California but incorporated in Delaware. A public benefit corporation is a business that must consider interests beyond shareholders, such as those of society and the environment, and it must issue an annual benefit report to its shareholders and the public. However, it is up to the board to decide how to weigh those interests and what to report in terms of the benefits and harms caused by the company. The new structure is described in a signed in October 2025 by OpenAI and the California attorney general, and endorsed by the Delaware attorney general. Many business media outlets heralded the move, predicting that it would usher in more investment. Two months later, SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, finalized a $41 billion investment in OpenAI. Changing its mission statement Most charities must file forms annually with the Internal Revenue Service with details about their missions, activities and financial status to show that they qualify for tax-exempt status. Because the IRS makes the forms public, they have become a way for nonprofits to signal their missions to the world. In its forms for 2022, OpenAI said its mission was to build general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) that safely benefits humanity, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return. OpenAIs mission statement as of 2023 included the word safely. IRS via Candid That mission statement has changed, as the company filed with the IRS in late 2025. It became to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAIs mission statement as of 2024 no longer included the word safely. IRS via Candid OpenAI had dropped its commitment to safety from its mission statement along with a commitment to being unconstrained by a need to make money for investors. According to Platformer, a tech media outlet, it has also disbanded its mission alignment team. In my view, these changes explicitly signal that OpenAI is making its profits a higher priority than the safety of its products. To be sure, OpenAI continues to mention safety when it discusses its mission. We view this mission as the most important challenge of our time, it states on its website. It requires simultaneously advancing AIs capability, safety, and positive impact in the world. Revising its legal governance structure Nonprofit boards are responsible for key decisions and upholding their organizations mission. Unlike private companies, board members of tax-exempt charitable nonprofits cannot personally enrich themselves by taking a share of earnings. In cases where a nonprofit owns a for-profit business, as OpenAI did with its previous structure, investors can take a cut of profits but they typically do not get a seat on the board or have an opportunity to elect board members, because that would be seen as a conflict of interest. The OpenAI Foundation now has a 26% stake in OpenAI Group. In effect, that means that the nonprofit board has given up nearly three-quarters of its control over the company. Software giant Microsoft owns a slightly larger stake 27% of OpenAIs stock due to its $13.8 billion investment in the AI company to date. OpenAIs employees and its other investors own the rest of the shares. Seeking more investment The main goal of OpenAIs restructuring, which it called a recapitalization, was to attract more private investment in the race for AI dominance. It has already succeeded on that front. As of early February 2026, the company was in talks with SoftBank for an additional $30 billion and stands to get up to a total of $60 billion from Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft combined. OpenAI is now valued at over $500 billion, up from $300 billion in March 2025. The new structure also paves the way for an eventual initial public offering, which, if it happens, would not only help the company raise more capital through stock markets but would also increase the pressure to make money for its shareholders. OpenAI says the foundations endowment is worth about $130 billion. Those numbers are only estimates because OpenAI is a privately held company without publicly traded shares. That means these figures are based on market value estimates rather than any objective evidence, such as market capitalization. When he announced the new structure, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, We secured concessions that ensure charitable assets are used for their intended purpose. He also predicted that safety will be prioritized and said the top priority is, and always will be, protecting our kids. Steps that might help keep people safe At the same time, several conditions in the OpenAI restructuring memo are designed to promote safety, including: A safety and security committee on the OpenAI Foundation board has the authority to that could potentially include the halting of a release of new OpenAI products based on assessments of their risks. The for-profit OpenAI Group has its own board, which must consider only OpenAIs mission rather than financial issues regarding safety and security issues. The OpenAI Foundations nonprofit board gets to appoint all members of the OpenAI Groups for-profit board. But given that neither the mission of the foundation nor of the OpenAI group explicitly alludes to safety, it will be hard to hold their boards accountable for it. Furthermore, since all but one board member currently serve on both boards, it is hard to see how they might oversee themselves. And doesnt indicate whether he was aware of the removal of any reference to safety from the mission statement. Identifying other paths OpenAI could have taken There are alternative models that I believe would serve the public interest better than this one. When Health Net, a California nonprofit health maintenance organization, converted to a for-profit insurance company in 1992, regulators required that 80% of its equity be transferred to another nonprofit health foundation. Unlike with OpenAI, the foundation had majority control after the transformation. A coalition of California nonprofits has argued that the attorney general should require OpenAI to transfer all of its assets to an independent nonprofit. Another example is The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Pennsylvania newspaper became a for-profit public benefit corporation in 2016. It belongs to the Lenfest Institute, a nonprofit. This structure allows Philadelphias biggest newspaper to attract investment without compromising its purpose journalism erving the needs of its local communities. Its become a model for potentially transforming the local news industry. At this point, I believe that the public bears the burden of two governance failures. One is that OpenAIs board has apparently abandoned its mission of safety. And the other is that the attorneys general of California and Delaware have let that happen. Alnoor Ebrahim is a professor of international business at The Fletcher School & Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
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