CVS Built a Store That's Just a Pharmacy, No Snacks, No Greeting Cards
A tiny, pharmacy-only CVS just opened in a Boston neighborhood Walgreens abandoned twice, and the company plans to open nearly 20 more just like it this year.
CVS opened a stripped-down, roughly 3,000-square-foot, pharmacy-only location in Roxbury's Nubian Square, a part of Boston that Walgreens exited in 2022 and again in 2024, leaving some residents with a long walk to fill a prescription. The only other pharmacy serving the area is an independent, Kornfield Pharmacy.
The format strips out the general merchandise most people associate with a CVS run and keeps a full-service pharmacy and immunizations, a limited over-the-counter selection, free home delivery for anything not in stock, a medication disposal bin, and a safe needle collection site. Sid Tenneti, CVS Health's senior vice president and interim president of pharmacy and consumer wellness, said the company is "reimagining how pharmacy care is delivered" around what specific communities actually need.
This is the test case for a broader pivot: CVS plans to open close to 20 of these smaller, pharmacy-only stores this year, following earlier openings in Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, and Washington, D.C., with roughly 30 a year planned starting in 2027 as part of a wider realignment of its retail footprint. Strip away the shampoo aisle and the overpriced phone chargers, and what's left is the one thing a pharmacy chain can't actually afford to lose: the pharmacy.
Source: Boston.com
Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →
