COVINGTON, Ky. — In a significant move to reset the struggling pharmaceutical chain business, Walgreens recently annouced the closure of thousands of stores over the next three years across the United States due to continous challenges with profitabilty and declining margins.

Paula Ruwe Miller has been a pharmacist for over 30 years. She says the best part of her job is getting to talk to her patients.

The Ruwe Family Pharmacy has served northern Kentucky for 100 years, and currently has three locations across the region. She says it’s been a struggle to stay afloat when competing with big pharma named organizations.

"Pharmacies have closed in key areas, leaving patients without a local pharmacy, without someone who knows them, who knows their health conditions, causing them to drive 30 minutes to an hour just to pick up a prescription,” she said.

Walgreens announced that it could close over 2,000 underperforming stores over the next three years across the U.S. due to continuous challenges with profitability and declining margins. While some may think this could help local business, Ruwe Miller says it can hurt them.

Ruwe Miller said, "We could definitely see an increase in business. And that’s not always a good thing in our line of work right now. Increasing your volume of prescriptions may result in increased costs for the pharmacy and a decrease in profits.”

She says all she can do is hope that they can continue to serve the community for years to come.

"We hope that we’re here for the long haul, but it is a very, very challenging time for our community pharmacies,” she said.

In a statement, Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said the closing of a number of stores may shift other locations to profitability. The company has not released a list of exact stores it plans to close yet.