Local News

Another pharmacy leaving as CVS in Dorchester Target to shutter

The news that CVS is closing a location follows the recent announcement that a Walgreens in Roxbury will shutter.

By Katelyn Umholtz

January 18, 2024

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Another retail pharmacy chain store is closing in Boston, this time a CVS inside a Dorchester Target. 

The CVS location inside Target at 500 Geneva Ave. will close March 6, as part of the largest pharmacy chain’s plan to close other locations inside the retail giant.

“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,” a CVS spokesperson said in a statement.

The Boston Globe reports the closures inside Target stores are also part of a move to put more attention toward the pharmacy’s standalone stores and less toward their partnership with Target, which began after CVS acquired Target’s pharmacy business in 2015.

A CVS spokesperson said medications would be transferred to the CVS on Washington Street, a 16-minute walk from the Target location. There’s also another CVS on Morrissey Boulevard that’s a 21-minute walk away, and a Washington Street Walgreens that is 22 minutes away on foot. 

The news follows other chain pharmacy closures that have largely impacted Boston’s lower-income and most diverse neighborhoods like Dorchester and Roxbury.

Last week, residents and community leaders in Roxbury protested outside of a soon-to-be-shuttered Walgreens at 416 Warren St. Those protests and coverage of the closure helped delay the closure to Jan. 31.

But after it closes for good, the next closest Walgreens will be 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.

In a statement from Walgreens, a spokesperson said they would move customer prescriptions from the Walgreens on Warren to the store on Columbus. 

City officials said online prescription refills and home deliveries are options they’re working with residents to consider if new locations aren’t accessible to them. Boston.com reached out last week to the city to elaborate on their plan and didn’t hear back. 

Boston lost three 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.