Top 720 Pharmacy Chains in California (2026)

Metro by metro

The leading pharmacy chains in every California metro area

Tracked pharmacy chains ranked by consumer spend in each metro area, Q4 2025–Q3 2026. CVS Pharmacy leads in 16 metro areas, Walgreens in 8 metro areas. Against their share in California as a whole, CVS Pharmacy stands out in 12 metro areas, Walgreens in 12 metro areas.

Relative to California #1 by spend

By tracked consumer spend, Q4 2025–Q3 2026

CVS Pharmacy
Relative #1 in 12 metro areas

Los Angeles, CA 1.2× · San Diego, CA 1.3× · Oxnard, CA 1.3× · Santa Maria, CA 1.4× · Visalia, CA 1.1× · Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA 1.3× · Salinas, CA 1.2× · San Luis Obispo, CA 1.4× · Vallejo, CA 1.2× · Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 1.4× · El Centro, CA 0.7× · Hanford-Corcoran, CA 0.5×
Walgreens
Relative #1 in 12 metro areas

Riverside, CA 1.3× · San Francisco, CA 1.1× · Sacramento, CA 1× · San Jose, CA 1.3× · Bakersfield-Delano, CA 1.5× · Fresno, CA 1.4× · Stockton-Lodi, CA 1.7× · Modesto, CA 1.6× · Redding, CA 1× · Merced, CA 1.5× · Chico, CA 1.4× · Yuba City, CA 2.3×

Not enough tracked stores: Napa, CA

CVS Pharmacy
#1 in 16 metro areas

Los Angeles, CA · Riverside, CA · San Francisco, CA · San Diego, CA · Sacramento, CA · San Jose, CA · Fresno, CA · Oxnard, CA · Santa Maria, CA · Visalia, CA · Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA · Salinas, CA · 4 more
Walgreens
#1 in 8 metro areas

Bakersfield-Delano, CA · Stockton-Lodi, CA · Modesto, CA · Merced, CA · Chico, CA · Yuba City, CA · El Centro, CA · Hanford-Corcoran, CA

Not enough tracked stores: Napa, CA

A metro area shows a ranking once it has at least 2 tracked pharmacy chains and 10 tracked stores. Relative to California compares a chain's share of the metro area's spend with its share in California as a whole. It ranks the 7 biggest chains in California and the chains that lead a metro area by spend, wherever a chain has at least 5% of the metro area's spend and 3 stores there. Metro areas are the Census Bureau's metropolitan statistical areas; the rest of California is light gray. Colors match the store map; other tracked chains are gray.

Growth ranking

Fastest-growing tracked pharmacy chains

Ranked by year-over-year growth of share of tracked local spend. Arrows show movement in the rankings since last year. Each dot in the chart is one tracked chain: bigger market position to the right, faster growth higher up, more tracked stores in a bigger dot. Colors match the store map below. CVS Pharmacy and ABC Pharmacy sit in the high-growth half.

# Chain YoY growth

Rank	Chain	Rank movement	YoY growth
1	CVS Pharmacy	-	+13.2%
2	ABC Pharmacy	-	+12.3%
3	Pioneer Drug Store	-	+12.2%
4	Walgreens	-	+8.1%
5	Cheaper Cigarettes	-	+2.8%
6	Medicine Shoppe	-	-2.9%
7	Express Pharmacy	-	-4.2%
8	AHF Pharmacy	-	-7.3%
9	Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy	-	-74.1%

CVS Pharmacy
Walgreens
Kaiser Permanente Distribution Center
Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy
Sav-on Pharmacy
Anza Valley Pharmacy
PIH Health
Other tracked chains

Store footprint

Store map

2,979 tracked store locations in California. The 7 largest tracked chains are highlighted. The top 5 chains by store count run 1,823 of the 2,979 stores (61%); 674 of the 720 tracked chains have a single store here. 10% of the tracked health & beauty stores here are pharmacies, against 9% across the United States.