It’s a tough tablet to swallow.
One more Duane Reade is about to shut on the Higher East Facet subsequent month — a part of a string of closures affecting big-box pharmacies grappling with rampant crime.
The closure of at the least 5 different big-box pharmacies within the neighborhood over the past 12 months has stoked residents’ fears over organized shoplifting — as additionally they face longer strains and prolonged journey occasions to get their prescriptions.
“My native Duane Reade, which is the one surviving close by drug retailer, tells me that they get robbed about as soon as an hour,” Andrew Superb, who serves because the co-vice president of the East 86th Road Affiliation civic group, stated in an X put up in July.
“Within the final 5 years or so, [crime has] undoubtedly picked up,” Superb informed The Publish in a latest interview. “Clearly it’s a revolving door of justice, no person spends any actual time … and I believe the criminals have figured this out. It’s much more organized.”
An worker on the soon-to-be-shuttered Duane Reade location at 1524 Second Ave., informed East Facet Feed that criminals are “stealing greater than we’re promoting.”
The shop’s anticipated Nov. 12 closure comes months after a serious theft passed off proper exterior of the shop in January, the weblog added.
An enraged shoplifter smashed home windows and a buyer within the hand with a hammer on the 1241 Lexington Ave. CVS location final 12 months after his stealing spree was foiled – and that retailer shuttered inside months.
That CVS together with two others, at 1223 Second Ave. and at 150 East 86th St., in addition to a Ceremony Help on 1849 Second Ave. are a few of the different latest closures.
Superb known as the string of closures “a giant downside for neighborhoods throughout Manhattan” — together with the “undoubtedly longer strains” noticed at surviving, albeit overburdened, pharmacies.
“And it’s unlucky that while you lose enterprise, it additionally promotes blight, it’s a priority,” Superb informed The Publish. “Someone maintaining the sidewalk, you don’t have any person eradicating graffiti. You lose some high quality of life.”
One other Higher East Sider, who would solely give his first identify, Bobby, advised the choice lock up fundamental merchandise on the a part of companies making an attempt to beat back shoplifters is at the least partially what has pushed prospects out of brick-and-mortar shops.
“It takes a pair minutes if you wish to get shampoo or no matter,” Bobby stated of the everyday pharmacy buying expertise, “however these are systemic issues and have extra to do with laws and the liberal inhabitants’s tolerance, and so they’re going to decide on inconvenience over punitive measures.”
The mass shutdown comes as CVS introduced it should shut 10% of its US areas by the tip of 2024. Walgreens, which has owned Duane Reade since 2010, has publicized related plans to shut 1,200 shops, in addition to Ceremony Help – which filed for Chapter 11 chapter in 2023 and is slated to shut 500 areas.
In actual fact, about 25% of Walgreens shops aren’t at the moment worthwhile, CEO Tim Wentworth stated this summer time. “We’re at a degree the place the present pharmacy mannequin just isn’t sustainable.”
The information additionally comes after each CVS and Walgreens settled a $13.8 billion nationwide opioid settlement in 2023.
Whereas big-box shops like CVS and Duane Reade are decreasing their presence within the space, smaller pharmacies informed The Publish they’re seeing an uptick in enterprise because of transferred prescriptions.
“There are extra prescriptions being transferred,” a pharmacy employee at Very important Well being Apothecary informed The Publish, including that lots of the new scripts are coming from CVS.
An worker at Zitomers on Madison Avenue stated they’ve seen an “enhance, completely” in new prescriptions.
“My older neighbors have talked about it, there’s a number of locations which have closed,” one Higher East Sider, who declined to offer his identify, informed The Publish Monday. “They’ve their spots that they’ve most well-liked for years, they’re aware of the premises and the employees there and so they’re snug with them.
“I don’t understand how far they’ll need to journey now,” he added.
Pharmacies have been closing “throughout” the neighborhood for some time, famous longtime Higher East Sider Victor Rottner, 86.
“Lots of people have been impacted, however up to now we haven’t been,” one other Higher East Sider, who frequents a Walgreens close to St. Catherine’s Park, stated.
Bobby, nevertheless, maintains that there’s nonetheless “no dearth of pharmacies within the space,” together with big-box shops.
As of October 2024, there are nonetheless three CVS pharmacy areas and about half a dozen Walgreens pharmacies within the neighborhood.
“It’s New York, it’s excessive inhabitants density. If all of them shut, new ones will pop up and so they’ll handle no matter their price points are,” Bobby stated, including that many pharmacies – together with CVS and Walgreens opponents Amazon and Capsule – ship on to residents’ doorways.
“Stop moaning and whining about inaccessibility,” he added, “and pay the additional for the comfort.”