WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Pharmacy giant CVS has announced in recent weeks that four of its Washington D.C. locations are going to close – including one that employees told WUSA9 had been robbed several times.
Now community and city leaders worry what that will mean for people who are losing access to their pharmacist.
Research has shown that pharmacies nationwide are more likely to close when they are in urban, predominantly minority neighborhoods.
That has people in D.C. worried, including our politicians.
ANC Commissioner Paula Edwards (4A01) asked our VERIFY team if the four closures here would impact minority neighborhoods that do not have access to other nearby pharmacies.
QUESTION
Do the recent pharmacy closures announced by CVS in Washington D.C. target predominantly minority neighborhoods?
SOURCES
ANSWER
Only one of the four CVS locations is in an area with a greater percentage of minority residents than the city as a whole.
WHAT WE FOUND
CVS is closing four of its pharmacies by the middle of March. One is a standalone store at 3031 14th St. NW, while the other three are pharmacies inside Target stores at 1515 New York Avenue NE, 4500 Wisconsin Avenue NW, and 7828 Georgia Avenue NW.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, approximately 60.38% of Washington D.C. residents identified as racial minorities. Of the four ZIP codes where those pharmacies are closing, only the Georgia Avenue location has a higher percentage of minorities (76.64%) than the district-wide average.
As for the impact of the closure, individual customers may be more affected than others based on their access to transportation. The Wisconsin Avenue location has a standalone CVS store directly across the street. The 14th Street NW location has a Unity Health Pharmacy across the street and another CVS .7 miles away at 1755 Columbia Road NW. The Georgia Avenue NW pharmacy has a Walgreens .6 miles away, while the nearest CVS is at 110 Carroll Street NW, approximately 1.2 miles away. The nearest pharmacy to the New York Avenue NE location is a Community of Hope pharmacy .8 miles away. The closest CVS is at 2350 Washington Place, 1.6 miles away.
A CVS spokesperson told WUSA9 that even after these four pharmacies close, the company will have 50 locations in Washington D.C.