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Roxbury Walgreens closure postponed, but not for long
The announcement that the Roxbury Walgreens would close has led to protests and city officials getting involved.
The closure of a Walgreens in Roxbury has reportedly been delayed after an outcry from concerned residents and coverage of the closure.
Its new closing date of Jan. 31 gives residents time to figure out other options to get their medications, city officials told The Boston Globe.
“This additional time is going to allow us to work with community members, and make sure folks are set up properly,” Segun Idowu, the city’s chief of economic opportunity and inclusion, told the Globe.
It isn’t immediately clear what next steps are for medication transfers for the customers that use the Walgreens at 416 Warren St. Idowu said online prescription refills and home deliveries are options they’re working with residents to consider.
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And those may be the only options residents in the area have. The closest Walgreens is on Columbus Avenue, about 22 minutes on foot from the Warren Street location. There’s a CVS slightly closer, a 15-minute walk, on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester.
It’s also not the only Walgreens closure in the last couple of years. Boston lost three of the chain pharmacy locations in Roxbury, Hyde Park, and Mattapan in late 2022, and across the country, thousands of locations from the nation’s three largest pharmacy chains — CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid — have shuttered due to financial struggles in the retail pharmacy industry.
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At that time in 2022, Boston City Council members said the recent closures would create “pharmacy deserts” for Boston’s underserved communities.
“It will make it harder for our elders, those without cars, and those with mobility issues to access their medicines and other household goods that Walgreens sells,” Roxbury City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson said in an email to the Globe in 2022. “This represents a real blow to three predominantly working class communities in our city.”
Residents of Roxbury, a neighborhood with a majority-minority population and where 44% of residents do not have access to a car, as well as activists, have protested the decision to close the Walgreens. Another protest is planned at 4 p.m. Friday.
A public comment on Boston 311 posted in late December called the Warren Street Walgreens an “inconvenience” after another Walgreens in Roxbury closed. But with its closure, the commenter said this presents a “hardship” for those who will have to rely on public transit even more to obtain medications.
Walgreens was not clear on why they chose to close yet another store in Roxbury but said in a statement that “existing footprint of stores, dynamics of the local market, and changes in the buying habits of our patients and customers” is part of the consideration for all store closures.
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