America’s pharmacy deserts: Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens will shut more than 1,500 stores due to crime and competition – leaving MILLIONS without access to healthcare

The nation’s largest drugstore chains, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens, will close more than 1,500 stores, leaving millions of Americans without access to health care in “pharmacy deserts.”

Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 U.S. locations after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month.

The pharmacy chain has failed to settle hundreds of lawsuits accusing it of overprescribing opioids and has struggled to keep up with the competition.

A slew of drugstore chains that have downsized their locations have left millions of people living in areas where medications are difficult to obtain, areas known as “pharmacy deserts,” according to JAMA Network.

“According to our estimates, approximately one in four neighborhoods nationwide is made up of pharmacies,” Dima Qato, an associate professor at the University of Southern California, told the university. WashingtonPost.

“These closures disproportionately impact communities that need pharmacies most.”

CVS will close 900 stores, 10 percent of all stores, by the end of 2024 as part of its online strategy.

The major drugstore chain is nearing the end of a policy launched in 2021 that will see 300 stores closed each year – meaning 900 will be closed by 2024.

CVS made the reforms to adapt to the needs of online shoppers while combating rampant shoplifting.

In September, CVS store manager Michael Jacobs, 49, was shot and killed by a customer accused of shoplifting in Arizona.

Photos show bare shelves at a DC CVS store that is routinely looted by groups of up to 50 teenagers.

CapitalOne research Estimated stores had lost $86.6 billion to shoplifting by 2022 and predicted that shoplifting could cost stores more than $115 billion by 2025.

Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 U.S. locations after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Abandoned shelves are seen at a DC CVS store that is routinely cleared out by shoplifting kids. CVS will close 900 stores, 10 percent of all its stores, by the end of 2024

Walgreens will close 150 stores by summer 2024. Employees at more than 500 of Walgreens’ 9,000 stores nationwide went on strike for three days in October.

Walgreens will close 150 stores by summer 2024, citing lower revenues due to declining demand for Covid vaccines and tests.

Shares in the pharmaceutical chain reached their lowest level in more than eleven years in June, prompting drastic cost-cutting measures by executives.

Employees at more than 500 of the 9,000 Walgreens stores nationwide went on strike from October 9 to 11.

Pharmacy workers walked out over concerns that working conditions put employees and patients at risk.

TelePharma healthcare company, said solutions for pharmacy deserts include prescription delivery, mail order, prescription drug safes, telepharmacy and physician dispensing.