Walgreens to close West Main Street store; Mayor expresses outrage

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Mayor Malik Evans is expressing outrage over Walgreens’ decision to close another store in the city.

The pharmacy chain plans to shut down the store on West Main Street in the Bulls Head neighborhood. this announcement comes two years after Walgreens closed a store on Thurston Road.

Evans is demanding Walgreens halt the closure plans, saying it disenfranchises a minority neighborhood and will severely limit pharmacy services in southwest Rochester.

An open letter from Evans to Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Tim Wentworth, Evans states, in part, “Walgreens’ intention to continue this history of disinvestment in yet another of Rochester’s densely populated, majority-minority neighborhoods is deeply disturbing and patently outrageous … To ignore these well documented challenges and deny such a large segment of Rochester’s minority population the same access to pharmacy services that Walgreens provides its customers in more affluent, majority-white areas of the Greater Rochester Region stands in stark contrast to the ideals expressed under the Walgreens Boots Alliance core pillar of ‘Healthy Communities: Improving Health Equity and Societal Wellbeing”

In a statement to News10NBC, Walgreens blamed regulatory pressures for a wave of closures.

The statement reads in part: “We are making substantial changes to our store footprint, closing stores based on profitability including this store in Rochester which are not able (to) cover the costs associated with rent, staffing, and supply needs. While it is not an easy decision to close a store, we will work to minimize customer disruptions. We intend to redeploy the majority of our team members and offer our dedicated team members new roles at other locations”