CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) has placed about 16% of its retail MinuteClinic locations on a seasonal schedule, closing their doors for the time being, while keeping other drugstore clinics open in those markets, a company spokeswoman said Monday.

MinuteClinic, the largest operator of retail clinics in the U.S., is making the move "to align with consumer demand," said CVS Caremark spokeswoman Carolyn Castel. The company now has about 460 clinics in operation, excluding those now closed for the season, she said.

The move has implications for the retail clinic industry, which enters a slow season in the spring, and may be a sign of increased pressure wrought by the economic recession.

Some 90 MinuteClinics started operating on a seasonal schedule earlier this month, while the company extended weekend hours in certain other clinics, said Castel. The company will reopen the stores for the next flu season or other seasonal needs, she said. MinuteClinic has not exited any market.

"This is the first time they've ever done such a thing," said industry consultant Tom Charland, chief executive of Merchant Medicine LLC, who noted in a report on his web site earlier Monday that MinuteClinic had removed 89 clinics from the list on its site since last week while adding two new ones. Nine states are most affected, notably California and Florida, according to Charland.

This will mark the first time MinuteClinic has placed clinics on a seasonal basis, "if indeed that turns out to be true" and the company reopens those clinics later, he said in an interview. Until now, MinuteClinics operated seven days a week, all year, he said.

"For those in the industry, the nagging problem is what to do with the extra capacity we have in the off season, and unless that problem gets solved this industry will continue to have a major structural weakness," Charland said. He had noted on his blog earlier this month that growth in the retail clinic industry has almost come to a halt this year.

Charland sees a larger economic dimension to MinuteClinic's move.

"I would imagine that this isn't just about we're going into the off-season. That cash preservation is something that we're seeing cross-industry," he said.

CVS' Castel noted that MinuteClinic continues to open new clinics in Massachusetts.

"MinuteClinic will be continuing to serve all of the communities in which we operate while maintaining convenient access to care," said Castel. Nearly all the seasonal clinic locations are within 10 miles of another MinuteClinic location and more than half are within five miles, so access has been affected only minimally, she said.

-By Dinah Wisenberg Brin, Dow Jones Newswires

215-656-8285; dinah.brin@dowjones.com