CVS is closing 5 shops in New York State this 12 months as a part of a sweeping plan to close down 271 areas nationwide in 2025, marking the newest spherical of cuts in a years-long downsizing effort by the pharmacy large.
The affected New York shops embody areas in North Tonawanda, Staten Island, Manhattan and two in Albany, in keeping with a listing compiled by Newsweek and coupon web site Krazy Coupon Girl.
The closures are a part of a broader company technique to streamline operations following the shutdown of roughly 900 CVS shops between 2022 and 2024.
The 5 New York areas slated for closure embody two shops in Albany, at 153 Central Avenue and 1026 Madison Avenue; a Manhattan location at 1241 Lexington Avenue; a retailer in North Tonawanda at 955 Payne Avenue; and a Staten Island location at 1654 Richmond Avenue.
Within the final 10 years, New York Metropolis has misplaced practically half of its drugstores amid a pointy improve in incidences of shoplifting and an total decline in high quality of life.
Whereas CVS has not publicly disclosed a full listing of areas or actual closure dates, an organization spokesperson mentioned the selections had been pushed by a number of components, together with “population shifts, consumer buying patterns, store and pharmacy density, pharmacy care access, and community health needs.”
The spokesperson added that the closures are half of a bigger “enterprise-wide restructuring plan” designed to simplify CVS’s enterprise mannequin and generate greater than $500 million in annual financial savings.
The corporate can also be aiming to consolidate its retail footprint whereas investing in new fashions of care, akin to in-store clinics and digital companies.
Regardless of the shop closures, CVS mentioned it plans to open 30 new pharmacy areas this 12 months, a lot of them inside Goal shops. As of the tip of 2024, the corporate operated round 9,000 areas nationwide.
CVS’s downsizing mirrors related strikes by different main pharmacy chains grappling with inflation, shrinking margins, and shifts in how Individuals fill prescriptions.
Walgreens introduced final fall it will shut greater than 1,200 shops, together with areas in New York. Ceremony Help, as soon as the third-largest pharmacy chain within the US, is now within the means of shuttering all of its remaining shops.
Ceremony Help filed for chapter in October 2023 and once more this spring, weighed down by practically $4 billion in debt and a number of lawsuits associated to its position within the opioid disaster.
Within the months since, the Pennsylvania-based firm has introduced plans to dump property and eradicate jobs after failing to safe new financing.
Ceremony Help has already bought the pharmacy operations of greater than 1,000 shops to rivals together with CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons, Kroger and Large Eagle.
CVS is about to accumulate 625 Ceremony Help pharmacies throughout 15 states, in addition to 64 full shops within the Pacific Northwest. These transactions nonetheless require approval from a federal chapter courtroom in New Jersey.
“These agreements ensure our pharmacy customers will experience a smooth transition while preserving jobs for some of our valued team members,” Ceremony Help CEO Matt Schroeder mentioned in a press release.
For now, Ceremony Help says its shops will stay open through the chapter course of, with clients in a position to choose up prescriptions and schedule vaccines as traditional.
However with only one,240 shops left — down from greater than 2,400 simply two years in the past — the corporate is predicted to shut about 10% of its remaining footprint within the coming months.
As CVS, Walgreens and Ceremony Help all cut back, analysts say the retail pharmacy sector is present process a dramatic transformation, formed by on-line opponents, altering shopper habits and chronic monetary pressures.
