The backlash against the upcoming closure of a Walgreens in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood is now escalating.
This would be the fourth Walgreens closure in a Boston neighborhood with a predominantly Black or Latino population.
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After activists held several protests last week, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and other elected officials and community leaders are calling on Walgreens to reverse course and keep the Warren Street pharmacy from closing.
"[They are] closing down the Walgreens in Black and brown communities systematically as part of their business plan," said Markey. "If you kicked Walgreens in the heart, you would break your toe. They don't care about poor communities. They don't care about Black and brown communities in our country. They're absolutely heartless."
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"Why? Why do they do a lot of things in a Black community that is detrimental to us?" said Antonique Bradshaw-Eagle, a Roxbury resident and Walgreens customer.
This is one of the last times Bradshaw-Eagle will be able to visit her neighborhood Walgreens in Roxbury.
"It’s really sad and unfortunate," she said. "We kind of depend on Walgreens for numerous things."
The drug store announced earlier this month it will be shutting down the Warren Street branch — the fourth such closure after locations in lower Roxbury, Hyde Park and Mattapan about a year ago.
"These shelves are now as empty as the promises, which Walgreens made to this community that they would be here," said Markey.
A hard pill to swallow for Bradshaw-Eagle who will have to catch a bus or train to another pharmacy.
"This is kind of detrimental. Now, where [are] people going to go for the prescriptions? The older people, [how] are they going to get around?" she said.
Activists said the moves are creating healthcare deserts in Black and Latino communities in Boston.
"A one mile is a long way when racial and economic discrimination have already created pharmacy and food deserts and a lack of transportation," said Markey. "More than 20 percent of Roxbury residents are food insecure. Roxbury also faces the highest rates in the city of chronic disease, such as asthma and diabetes."
And it's not just Walgreens. CVS also announced this week it's pulling out from the Target in Dorchester's Fields Corner by March.
Walgreens responded by saying in part, "When faced with the difficult decision to close a location, several factors are taken into account, including our existing footprint of stores, dynamics of the local market and changes in the buying habits of our patients and customers."
"There aren't a lot of pharmacies in the area," said a woman, who claims she's a former Walgreens employee and asked not to have her name used.
She said she believes there's another reason why the drug store is closing in these parts of the city.
"It's not really safe anymore unfortunately for the employees. There's a lot of like stealing and so forth," she said.
The woman said she knows how important the Walgreens on Warren Street is for the Roxbury community and hopes something can be done to help customers.
"It's going to be a bigger problem. Unfortunately, there's not much people can do. I mean, they could petition and so forth but who knows how far that will go," she said.
Markey said he wrote a letter with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley to Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth asking the company not to close the Warren Street Walgreens.
He said they have yet to hear back from the company.
