On July 22, Walgreens opened a new 45,000-square-foot micro-fulfillment center (MFC) in Kent, Washington. This new facility brings 85 new jobs to the greater Seattle community and will support nearly 196 Walgreens stores across the Mountain West region, including 122 in Washington alone. Washington Retail Association President & CEO, Jan Himebaugh, was on hand to welcome the state-of-the-art facility to Washington; the opening was also attended by multiple state legislators, locally elected officials, and pharmacy school representatives, demonstrating that WRA’s retail members are driving technological solutions that better serve our communities.
Walgreens’ MFCs use innovative robotic technology in a centralized pharmacy environment to dispense and ship prescriptions to its retail stores. This helps improve efficiency, stabilize staffing and pharmacy hours, reduce workflow pain points, and free up pharmacy team members’ capacity to spend more time with patients.
The Kent MFC joins 13 other facilities supporting 5,400 stores across the country. These centers fulfill anywhere from four to five million prescriptions weekly, handling over 40 percent of Walgreens’ total prescription volume.
