Protestors Emerge As Massive Retailer Now Closes 200 Stores

January 16, 2024

Protestors emerge as a massive retailer now closes 200 stores nationwide, leaving several communities in complicated situations.

Angry protestors have expressed fury over the planned closure of a Walgreens store, saying the decision is a “matter of life and death,” reports The-Sun.

A group called Communities of Color for Health Equity, a coalition of concerned residents, assembled in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood to oppose the pharmacy chain’s move.

Walgreens announced the store would pull down its shutters on Monday.

Many protesters are now unsure where they will collect their prescriptions.

“For Tim Wentworth and Walgreens, this is all about business, but for us, it’s a matter of life and death,” Reverand Miniard Culpepper with the Black Men’s Political Task Force said.

Wentworth is the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the CEO of the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States, behind CVS Health.

It’s the latest Walgreens to shut its doors in recent years, one of approximately 200 store closings the company said would be coming in 2024.

Others slammed the decision to close the store on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“The history of this building is that my Godfather, Donald Sneed, used to have a bank here,” Mawakana Onifade, a Walgreens customer, said.

“It was the first black bank in New England.”

The organization posted a letter to the Walgreens area corporate office in Marlborough, Massachusetts earlier this week, detailing their concerns.

Walgreens have urged customers to locate their next nearest store or opt for mail-order prescriptions.

The closure of pharmacy stores is leading to what’s known as ‘pharmacy deserts’.

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A massive retailer is now closing stores inside Target, part of a plan to reduce its density after already shuttering several locations.

CVS said this week that it plans to close some pharmacies that are located inside Target stores.

The pharmacy closures will begin in February and be completed by the end of April, a CVS spokesperson confirmed to Retail Dive.

The closures are part of CVS’ plan to realign its national retail footprint and reduce store and pharmacy density.

Employees affected by the Target store-in-store closures will be offered comparable roles within the company.

Unfortunately, CVS declined to identify the locations slated for closure.

However, the pharmacy retailer did state that it has about 1,800 locations inside Target stores.

Prescriptions at closing locations will be transferred to a nearby CVS Pharmacy, the company said.

CVS acquired Target’s pharmacy business in 2015.

The deal was worth a whopping $1.9 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The partnership was “a significant shift” in Target’s business model, CEO Brian Cornell said in a blog post at that time.

Rather than invest its own resources into in-store healthcare, the company instead chose to rely on “an expert partner” which gave Target the bandwidth to focus on growing its overall wellness business, the company said.

“The closures are part of our plan to realign our national retail footprint and reduce store and pharmacy density and are based on our evaluation of changes in population, consumer buying patterns and future health needs to ensure we have the right pharmacy format in the right locations for patients,” CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault said in an email.

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