Walgreens (WAG) "Financial Services"

[TomK]

Have a look at this press release about Walgreens entering the banking space.

I don't know if this is brilliant or scary. But when I read that my conservative, retail drugstore stock is launching "financial service products" I get a little nervous. Really it looks to be nothing more than a nicely packaged and marketed prepaid debit card program and, if it were widely used, could be a nice new source of revenue for WAG.

[Kerim]

I'm going to give WAG the benefit of the doubt and assume this is a glorified debit card / loyalty program that is mostly non-risk upside, rather than "financial services" of the type that nearly sunk GE in the 2008-2009 crisis.

[EricL]

(10-08-2013, 09:18 PM)Kerim Wrote: I'm going to give WAG the benefit of the doubt and assume this is a glorified debit card / loyalty program that is mostly non-risk upside, rather than "financial services" of the type that nearly sunk GE in the 2008-2009 crisis.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking as well. Starbucks and others have had great success with loyalty programs, I think this is just Walgreen's effort to join in the fun.

[Horace Cugle]

Normally I wouldn't like a move like this but WAG has been firing on all cylinders so I will give them the benefit of the doubt. I like to see companies stick to what they do best.