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Why Walgreens’ New CEO Should Alarm Us
The man who oversaw massive store closures and job cuts at Staples is now in charge of one of America’s most important companies.
Dec 11, 2025
Sycamore Partners finalized its $18.8 billion acquisition of Walgreens this summer, relying on a staggering amount of debt to close the deal. However, a more innocuous decision may be the real warning sign that could spell doom for Walgreens and its workers: Sycamore installed Mike Motz, the CEO of Staples US Retail—another company it owns—as Walgreens’ new chief executive.
That appointment should alarm every patient, pharmacist, and community that depends on Walgreens. Motz took over at Staples US Retail in April 2019, the same month that Sycamore Partners added debt to Staples’ balance sheet to extract a $1 billion dividend for itself. Under Sycamore’s ownership, Staples has shuttered a third of its US stores, cutting tens of thousands of jobs. Just this September, Staples subsidiary Essendant announced hundreds of layoffs in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, New Jersey. If 33% of Walgreens stores were to close, the fallout could be catastrophic: more than 70,000 layoffs and communities losing access to pharmacies and essential medications.
Sycamore Partners has developed a reputation for squeezing cash out of its acquisitions at the expense of long-term stability. The firm's history already contains documented, high-profile bankruptcies and mass layoffs. Belk and Nine West both went bankrupt while under Sycamore’s control. At Nine West, bankruptcy meant the closure of 70 stores and widespread layoffs. Belk, which Sycamore Partners acquired in a leveraged buyout in 2015, filed for bankruptcy in 2021 with $1.9 billion in funded debt. Aeropostale, meanwhile, claimed that onerous terms from Sycamore’s apparel sourcing arm helped drive it into bankruptcy.
Staples, one of Sycamore’s best-known acquisitions, has endured years of store closures since being taken private in 2017. With Sycamore in control, Staples closed roughly 33% of its stores. The decision to put the Staples CEO in charge of Walgreens signals that the same corporate strategy of mass closures may now be applied to one of America’s most important healthcare access points. The problem is not only who is running Walgreens, but also the strategy that the new executive represents.
The Walgreens acquisition is one of the largest private equity healthcare buyouts in history. That makes its outcome a bellwether for how Wall Street’s debt-fueled model could continue to reshape the healthcare sector.
Sycamore’s portfolio companies have also been cited repeatedly for workplace safety failures. Staples alone has had 37 Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations totaling more than $192,000 in fines since Sycamore acquired it—23 of them classified as serious, meaning hazards that could cause severe injury or death. Across Sycamore’s retail holdings, the absence of significant union representation has left workers without a collective voice to push back against these conditions.
Beyond leadership, the financial engineering behind this deal sets Walgreens up for trouble. Sycamore Partners relied on more than 70% debt ($13.33 billion out of $18.8 billion) to fund its acquisition of Walgreens, which is an unusually high level, compared to recent private equity buyouts. That level of leverage puts Walgreens on unstable footing from day one.
The risks of the usage of high levels of debt in private equity takeovers is well-documented. In the first quarter of this year alone, 70% of large US corporate bankruptcies involved private equity-owned companies. These bankruptcies followed a familiar script: Firms borrowed heavily to finance buyouts, extracted value from their portfolio companies, and left them unable to withstand market pressures or economic downturns. Walgreens now carries those same risks.
Sycamore Partners’ acquisitions have amassed it a portfolio of mostly retail companies, but now the Walgreens buyout brings the firm directly in contact with a public health system that hundreds of millions of Americans rely on daily. Many communities, particularly rural towns, low-income areas, and minority neighborhoods, have limited access to pharmacies.
Store closures in those communities wouldn’t just mean inconvenience; they could mean patients losing access to lifesaving medications, routine vaccinations, and basic health consultations. The potential job losses are equally severe. If tens of thousands more workers are laid off, that kind of shock would ripple across local economies, cutting off benefits and wages for tens of thousands of families.
The Walgreens acquisition is one of the largest private equity healthcare buyouts in history. That makes its outcome a bellwether for how Wall Street’s debt-fueled model could continue to reshape the healthcare sector. Unfortunately, the early warning signs are clear. A heavily indebted company, led by an executive imported from another Sycamore-owned retailer, looks less like a turnaround story and more like the setup for another collapse.
Sycamore Partners insists it can manage Walgreens successfully. But the history of the firm’s operation of its portfolio companies tells a different story. From bankruptcies at Belk and Nine West to sweeping layoffs at Staples, the firm’s track record speaks for itself. Local communities, workers, and patients may once again pay the price for Wall Street’s short-term gains.
Walgreens is more than just a household brand. For millions of Americans, it is a vital link to the healthcare system. By wresting control of Walgreens, and importing the same leadership that oversaw Staples’ store closures and job cuts, Sycamore Partners has put that link at risk. Unless something changes, the consequences could be measured not just in balance sheets, but in lost jobs, shuttered stores, and diminished access to care.
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In Trump Economy, Holiday Spending Plans Plummet and Layoffs Hit Highest Level Since Covid Pandemic
The grim data arrive as President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to "aggressively push back" on negative perceptions about his economy.
Dec 04, 2025
A new batch of data is offering more evidence that the US economy is in rough shape heading into the holidays.
The latest Economic Confidence Index released by Gallup on Thursday has found that Americans' confidence in the economy has fallen by seven points over the last month, and now stands at its lowest level in more than a year.
Overall, Gallup found that just 21% of Americans currently describe the economy as excellent or good, while 40% describe it as poor. The outlook for the near future also looks grim, as more than two-thirds of Americans surveyed said the economy is currently getting worse.
This deteriorating economic confidence is weighing on Americans' holiday shopping plans, as Gallup found that planned holiday spending expenditures have "plummeted" from just over $1,000 in October to $778 in November. The decline in spending expectations also occurred across all income groups, although it was particularly steep among low-income households, which slashed their estimated holiday spending by an average of $267.
Gallup noted that while it's common for shoppers to trim their spending plans the closer it gets to the holidays, the drop between October and November this year was the biggest it has ever recorded, even "surpassing the $185 drop seen during the 2008 global financial crisis."
The Gallup survey was not the only troubling economic data to drop on Thursday, as outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas released its latest report showing that hiring in the US has slowed to its lowest level in the last 15 years, while layoffs now total their highest level since 2020, when the country was at the peak of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
The data on layoffs came just one day after global payroll processing firm ADP estimated that the US economy lost 32,000 jobs in November, with small businesses shouldering by far the most job losses.
President Donald Trump, who earlier this week dismissed concerns Americans might have about affordability as a "Democrat scam," has reportedly decided to hit the road in an effort to convince voters that they've never had it so good.
According to Axios, Trump next week will start touring the country to tout his administration's economic policies, and he is expected to "aggressively push back against criticism over the cost of everyday essentials—an issue that helped propel him to victory over Kamala Harris last year."
However, a new poll published by Politico on Thursday shows that Trump may have an uphill climb selling his economy even to his own voters.
Overall, the poll found that 37% of voters who backed Trump last year now say that the cost of living crisis is the worst they have experienced in their lifetimes, while only 24% of 2024 Trump voters say that the cost of living crisis at the moment is "not bad."
The poll also found that Trump's efforts to blame former President Joe Biden for the current state of the economy aren't flying, as 46% of voters say that Trump is most to blame for the current state of the economy, compared to 29% of voters who put the primary blame on Biden.
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‘Yikes’: New Jobs Data Further Undermines Trump Fiction of Thriving Economy
"The booming job market exists only in Donald Trump's demented head," said economist Dean Baker.
Dec 03, 2025
Economists on Wednesday expressed significant concerns after new data from global payroll processing firm ADP estimated that the US economy lost 32,000 jobs last month.
As reported by CNBC, small businesses bore the brunt of the job losses, as firms with fewer than 50 employees shed a total of 120,000 jobs, more than offsetting the 90,000 in job gains reported by firms with 50 or more employees.
The loss of 32,000 jobs in November marked a major miss for economists' consensus estimate of 40,000 jobs added on the month, and CNBC noted that the total number of jobs lost according to ADP data "was the biggest drop since March 2023."
Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, noted in a post on X that the job losses recorded by ADP were widespread across the US economy.
"Yikes," she wrote in reaction to the report. "Most industries were doing layoffs. The only ones still are hiring are hospitality and healthcare."
Long also said the disparity between small and large businesses in terms of job growth was more evidence that the US is experiencing a "K-shaped" economy in which those at the top of the economic ladder thrive, even as everyone else struggles.
"Larger companies are still hiring," she explained. "Smaller firms (under 50 workers) are doing the layoffs. It's been a very tough year for small biz due to tariffs and more selective spending from lower and middle-class consumers."
Kevin Gordon, head of macro research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, observed that ADP hasn't reported such a big drop in small-business employment since October 2020, when the US economy was suffering through the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, cautioned against reading too much into ADP data, although he added that "in the absence of up to date government payrolls, all other signs point to a further deteriorating labor market."
Charlie Bilello, chief market strategist at financial planner Creative Planning, argued that the ADP jobs numbers were part of a negative three-month trend in which the US economy lost an estimated 4,000 jobs per month, which he said was "the first three-month decline since the 2020 recession."
Bilello added that "a year ago, we were adding over 200,000 jobs per month."
Diane Swonk, chief economist at accounting firm KPMG, argued that the ADP report showed job losses in the US economy were "broad based" and "were accompanied by a cooling of wage gains" for workers who still have jobs or are switching from one job to another.
"Those with a job are clinging on, while those without are left wanting," she explained.
Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, argued that the ADP report blows up President Donald Trump's spin about the health of the US economy.
"The booming job market exists only in Donald Trump's demented head," he wrote.
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