内容摘要：Midwife Stephanie Wood examines Courtney Knight during a pregnancy checkup. Midwives at Commonsense Childbirth are striving to provide good, accessible care. (AP Photo/Laura Ungar)

Midwife Stephanie Wood examines Courtney Knight during a pregnancy checkup. Midwives at Commonsense Childbirth are striving to provide good, accessible care. (AP Photo/Laura Ungar)

Prakash Patel, owner and pharmacist, foreground, works at Bert’s Pharmacy in Elizabeth, N.J. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)Prakash Patel, owner and pharmacist, foreground, works at Bert’s Pharmacy in Elizabeth, N.J. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)

Blame the closings on problems like sliding revenue and rising expenses. For years, the reimbursement that drugstores receive for filling most prescriptions has shrunk while things like utilities and employee pay continue to climb., and Walgreens has cited it as one of the many reasons it closes stores. Drugstores often carry small, pricey items like beauty supplies, batteries and baby formula that are easy to steal and resell, said Burt Flickinger III, managing director of the retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group.It can take new pharmacy locations as many as three years to build a customer base and break even, said Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds who follows the industry. That’s tough when customers also are less reliant on drugstores now than in decades past.

He said shoppers buy more things online or during bigger trips to Costco or Walmart, and discount stores look even more attractive when inflation pushes up prices.“I don’t think (consumers are) walking into the pharmacy two or three times a week and doing those little impulse buys in the front of the store as often,” Jonas said.

Drugstores say they haven’t forgotten the communities left behind when a store closes. Walgreens, for instance, delivers some prescriptions for free within a 15-mile radius.

But deliveries don’t involve seeing a pharmacist or a pharmacy staff. And pharmacy technicians and others behind the counter often look like their customers or may speak a language that’s dominant in the neighborhood.is about 15 years, but some Stars had long lives, like the first who lived to 23. Others didn’t live as long, including the second Star, who was stolen, beaten to death and then butchered by a known Fairbanks meat thief. The third Star died after eating a plastic bag.

DALLAS (AP) — Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid wasn’t keeping his hands off the Western Conference championship trophy this time.McDavid gladly touched the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl when accepting it after the

over the Dallas Stars in Game 5 on Thursday night that sent the Oilers to a Stanley Cup Final rematch against the Florida Panthers.“It’s pretty obvious I think,” McDavid said about what was different from the end of last year’s West final. “Don’t touch it last year, you don’t win. Touch it this year, hopefully we win.”