Nearly 10% of New York City’s drugstores have closed this year — a dramatic drop following a decade of retreats that has slashed their number by 40% as shoplifting continues to run rampant, according an explosive study.
The number of Walgreens, Duane Reade, CVS and Rite Aid stores across the city shrunk to 395 locations in 2024. That’s versus 435 last year, and down sharply from a peak of 656 in 2014, according to The Center for an Urban Future’s annual report titled “State of the Chains.”
The worst-hit pharmacy chain was was the biggest in the city — Walgreens Boots Alliance — which owns Duane Reade. It closed 22 stores in the Big Apple – leaving it with just 189 locations, according to the report.
CVS, meanwhile, shuttered 10 stores leaving 160 locations. Rite Aid, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year, closed eight stores this year and now operates just 46 in the city.
Among the casualties were two massive Duane Reade locations this spring — one at 4 Times Square and the other at the corner of Broadway and West 50th Street. That’s after the 16,200-square-foot Walgreens flagship store at One Times Square shuttered in 2022 after weathering the depths of the pandemic.
Also in 2022, a Rite Aid at Eighth Avenue and West 50th Street shuttered. It’s now being redeveloped as a smaller-format Whole Foods store.
Experts blame not only crime but also drugstores’ stepped-up security measures — most notably locking merchandise behind plexiglass, forcing customers to call and wait for store clerks for everything from shampoo to painkillers.
To avoid hassles, shoppers are skipping drugstores altogether and buying more essentials online.
“There is no doubt that locking up products, moving to automated check out and having fewer people working in these stores has contributed to fewer people going into their stores,” Jonathan Bowles, executive director of The Center for an Urban Future, told The Post.
“More New Yorkers can purchase this merchandise online, but when they do go to these stores there are fewer people working there and stuff is locked up.”
More closures are likely. CVS, with 9,000 stores nationwide, announced in 2021 that it would shutter 900 stores over several years.
“Decisions are NOT based on shoplifting or crime alone,’ a CVS spokeswoman told The Post when asked about the recent shutterings.
“Many factors are considered when closing a store, including population shifts, consumer buying patterns, store and pharmacy density, pharmacy care access, and community health needs,” the spokeswoman added.
A spokesperson for Rite Aid said, “Like many in the industry, we are seeing a higher level of brazen shoplifting and organized retail crime. We are taking an active role in helping law enforcement in their pursuit of shoplifters, as well as continuing our efforts to educate community leaders on the impact of retail theft and advocate for solutions.”
Indeed, the drugstore exodus is wreaking havoc on Big Apple streets, according to Bowles.
“There have been graffiti on the empty store buildings or homeless people who have decided to sleep [by the entrance] because there is not an active store there, so it’s not a healthy thing for our retail landscape,” Bowles said.
Walgreens Boots Alliance said in October it’s planning to shutter 500 stores in 2025 and 1,200 altogether over the next three years.
The Chicago-based pharmacy chain, which has around 8,700 locations nationwide, said that one in four of its stores are unprofitable and that its is looking to “improve our customers’ in-store experience.”
A Walgreens rep told The Post that the closings are driven by increased “regulatory and reimbursement pressures” that are “weighing on our ability to cover the costs associated with rent, staffing, and supply needs.”
The company has not directly tied its store closings to crime, but executives have said on earnings calls that “shrink” — which means theft in corporate speak — “represents a serious systemic issue across the retail industry.”
Big Apple drugstores have been particularly hard hit by a crime wave that accelerated with the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Shuttered drugstores account for “an outsize share of the vacancy rate in New York City” because demand is low for the larger spaces they typically occupy, Bowles added. By one measure, empty drugstore space totals one million square feet, according to a New York Times report in August.
“A few years ago, I thought we were too heavy with drugstores on almost every block,” said Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes development in the district. “But whenever a pendulum swings too far in one direction it goes back.”