Walgreens sees 1 color and thats green. They dont care what color the people spending the money are. Their corporate office is in Illinois they probably dont even know the demo of these neighborhoods since they opened

They should just spit out the truth that the company lost a ton of money due to the opioid settlement and they are cutting the low performing stores to maintain their high levels of profits.

The Walgreens in Newton Center closed as well. A bunch of CVS locations have closed as well. They are consolidating.

They are businesses…not charities. 😗 If they are pouring money down a hole…they leave…as they should.

Probably a high level of shoplifting as well.

While I don’t agree with people losing their lives and such when they get busted, just deciding it’s no longer illegal to steal isn’t exactly fixing stuff. Brick and mortars already a slim margin proposition vs online, especially in the cities, free passes to shoplift with impunity only going to expedite the death March of physical stores

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Business does a business decision. News at 11.

Boston officials: let’s throw up every obstacle possible to businesses opening and operating in the city.

Also Boston officials: you aren’t allowed to close for business reasons because we need businesses

They are so concerned about investments in these communities, but make viable businesses spend millions in legal costs and years in pointless hearings that either completely neuter their operations or turn them away from the start.

If Boston officials cared they would already know why they are bailing

Nubian Station Walgreens was always desolate with half empty shelves. Literally no revenue or customer base for this location aside from the zombies.

I thought that but the settle is the equivalent of 1/35 a year’s revenue spread out over 5 years. Like, they’d still be arguing if this wasn’t a settlement they couldn’t easily absorb

Are they obligated to serve these neighborhoods? We've all perused reddit at all these local pharmacies being taken advantage of with looting. Like the recent meme shows, fuck around, find out.

Citizens blame random business for their lack of public transportation problems rather than the government. News at 11.

The pandemic also increased their costs substantially. There is a huge labor shortage of pharmacists right now and their job got more complicated over the pandemic which requires higher wages to keep them employed.

Additionally a lot of their customers are turned to delivery services over the pandemic and likely aren't returning. If my prescriptions were allowed to be delivered I know I wouldn't be going to the stores anymore but I haven't found one willing to ship ADHD meds.

Yep. Pharmaceuticals moving online and being shipped directly, especially QoL meds, are killing CVS et al.

Feel bad for some, but the reality is, there is no reason why my dad should need to go to a physical CVS store for his diabetes meds or my mom's thyroid medication.

It's the same fear mongering over alcohol being shipped but the reality is, it's someone wanting to keep their fiefdom profitable.

Oh i know how to encourage them to leave. Don't prosecute shop lifters! Let's force them to pay a living wage... no matter that it forces stores to lose money.... those greedy bastards..

Oh so now your city streets are now empty of stores and your citizens are complaining... oops. well... hmm.. let's tax rich people so our cities and suburbs are empty also.... The wonderful woke citizens are waging an active campaign to destroy our commonPOOR and you are helping them. Well done just don't be surprised when the place starts to resemble Detroit. We are getting closer every day.

We’re those paying zombies?

> Don't prosecute shop lifters!

this has never been a widespread government policy. its almost always a corporate one due to legal liabilities around having your employees harassing customers.

> Let's force them to pay a living wage

yes, if you don't pay a living wage who is going to be your workers? your customers, etc.

> Oh so now your city streets are now empty of stores

this has almost nothing to do with your above points and mostly due to the rise of ecommerce; which is simply a better experience. I can go online and purchase exactly what I want within 10 minutes and receive it at my door in a couple days vs commute to a store, go through a shit ton of isles to look for my particular wants, only to find they don't carry what I want, commute to another store to check there....

10-30minutes of pain free searching vs hour+ where I may not even find what I want.

you seem to be blaming people for demanding that base pay is sufficient for them to put food on the table and wrapping it up under being 'woke' vs just a base line requirement for society. the world has changed; deal with it.

Those rich people aren’t leaving though. Otherwise I agree with you. The difference between here and Detroit is we have every stable and burgeoning industry, and they had every one that wasn’t. (American cars were dying a slow death)

You really think the Walgreens corporate office that closed these has any idea what the people at these stores look like? They see numbers on a balance sheet, that’s all.

No one can afford to work as a minimum wage pharmacy tech so they're facing labor shortages as well. Yet another consequence of the failure to build more housing.

There are no repercussions anymore for shoplifting.

Must be cus of that big fine they payed from pumping pill for the last 20 years

But it was widespread government policy. It’s just the flip side of this:

https://www.vera.org/news/what-happened-when-boston-stopped-prosecuting-nonviolent-crimes

Also… yes, not prosecuting shoplifting does lead to a drop in shoplifting complaints… because people stop reporting things that aren’t viewed as crimes.

Boston officials also refused to prosecute shoplifters, in fact they were pretty proud of it if I recall.

How's that going?

Decent https explainer on what's happening to drugstore chains nationwide:

://slate.com/business/2022/11/cvs-walgreens-shoplifting-plexiglass-barriers-pharmacies.html

Tldr it's not actually that much shoplifting, more Amazon and deliveries taking their higher margin business.

Income statement, balance sheet is assets. The Store's P&L and loss ratio due to shoplifting were definitely the key criteria. Proximity to other locations and competitors also matter as do site leases.

I believe there is a shortage of Pharmacy Techs but not pharmacists

widespread means more than boston and a single DA.

vs literally every department store in the country has the policy of not charging shop lifters until they hit federal crime levels of items. target, walmart, etc. which most shop lifters don't hit.

I also find it amusing that you link to an article which is all about the benefits of not prosecuting lol.

> The research is unmistakable: shrinking the reach of the criminal legal system by not prosecuting nonviolent misdemeanor cases is a net positive for community safety.

as I said original nothing in the original post is even remotely related to this policy anyways. since all the issues mentioned are found in cities all over the country.

Yeah that article is something else.

It can be summed up with the following sentence:

“If we close our eyes and cover our ears, crime goes down.”

Like I said, this is the result of that ideology that this research doesn’t delve into. Bottom line is that “victimless crimes” such as stealing do in fact have victims and they’re not running charities so at some point they’re going to make business decisions in the course of running their business.

Walgreens and CVS's are closing and consolidating across the country, this has nothing to do with boston officials making it difficult to run and open businesses and everything to do with irresponsible growth backed by the expectation that even if the store itself fails, the property it is on will maintain its value. Its a natural consequence of a loose monetary policy.

I promise you, when Walgreens execs get the numbers saying that there is money to be made in these neighborhoods, no amount of made up "anti-business" policies will stop them. They have entire teams of people dedicated to setting up these stores.

Even with enforcement these companies ALREADY made the choice not to prosecute theft because of the liability for law suits due to their poorly trained staff and because the ROI wasn't worth the price vs just raising costs.

you're entire position doesn't even exist in reality today. its just you being upset that people steal things. which is valid but doesn't change the reality of how companies operate; which is expect theft, increase prices to cover the losses due to shrinkage rates.

no one is going to pay a lawyer 400 / h to charge and prosecute a $20 item. and no I don't want to pay the AG and police offices thousands of dollars to do the same either.

What? Multiple companies have a “shall prosecute” policy and it’s handled by the DAs office, not corporate business lawyers. Not only that but their staff doesn’t intervene, it’s police. So none of what you said has ever been or will it ever be true, so you can stop speaking as if you’re an expert on the subject.

And news flash, nobody gives a fuck about $20 worth of shit, I care about the people loading their vehicles up with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise several times a day all across the commonwealth.

Given your position on the topic I’m going to tell you right now these types of organizations are far more common than you think and are absolutely cashing in on our new found desire for fake justice and once again the only real losers are the regular people that nobody ever seems to care about since they’re losing their convienne store and pharmacy because at some point these companies can’t take the losses any more and decide to vacate.

https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/wal-mart_to_allow_petty_shoplifting/

until you hit federal levels of theft no one cares. at which point Rollin's policy of not prosecuting no longer applies and this discussion ends. get it now?

walgreens and cvs have both been closing stores over the last couple years. probably due to staffing issues

/ staffing issues

the politicians need to show why they have jobs so they make a stink about things they think people will care about

yesterday I stood in line as the 1st person in line for about 10 minutes for a 7 dollar purchase while the customer and clerk spent 10 minutes joking around about how they both couldn't figure about how to process the transaction, should have just walked out with it

politicians aren't real people, they have to be as woke as possible to get headlines and be relevant. the consequences of their stupid policies have no impact on their lives

Well I look forward to your utopia where everything is free

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you're just not getting shit. not my fault. no one is saying don't prosecute shop lifters. everyone is saying: its not cost effective to prosecute every petty shop lifter. the one offs for low price and necessary goods? just let them go. track them over time? sure. waste everyones time over that $20 item? na.

the repeat offenders who steal thousands of dollars of stuff? suddenly its worth the cost and you get enforcement.

Rollin's was 100% spot on to not waste her departments time for the little stuff. So was walmart/target and every other big box store.

Ok, then you don’t get to complain when mass and cass and other poor areas of the city are a food and convenience desert.

Those companies are 100% right to not waste their time and effort for so little ROI.

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I understand why Walgreens and CVS are closing, my comment is more around investment in the neighborhoods these councilors are allegedly concerned about.

There’s maybe 1(?) liquor license in all of Mattapan. And there haven’t been any of the community beer and wine licenses awarded. There’s also constant hand wringing about crime, traffic, and other hypothetical boogey men when businesses try to open or expand.

so we've moved on from petty theft to drug users now got it! so far have we strayed from the original topic of: ecommerce is causing the death of cvs/walgreens/boutique stores not petty theft. mass and cass has nothing to do with the price of milk and is a whole separate topic.

Yeah with already razor thin margins there’s no reason to keep the stores open that are hit hardest by petty theft. It’s just doing more damage to an already hurting bottom line. Again… these aren’t charities, they’re businesses. Why do you think these companies owe you or city council anything? They’re a business making a business decision.

Just because you don’t get it doesn’t make it my fault.

Oh, I 100% agree. Startup costs and licenses in Boston make starting up a business as an individual impossible without experience doing it before or hiring outside counsel. Should be easier, and its only made more difficult by understaffed local bureaucracy.

That's every Walgreens I've been too. The one on centre street is depressing as hell. I walk the extra distance to cvs