A MAJOR pharmacy chain has decided to shut down operations in a town, despite ongoing pleas from the community to stay open.
CVS announced it will stop operations in Paulsboro, New Jersey on August 22 - despite ongoing efforts from local officials to keep the integral pharmacy open.
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The decision to leave the city comes after Paulsboro's Mayor, Gary Stevenson, pleaded with the corporation to stay put in a letter.
Stevenson wrote: "OUR RESIDENTS HEALTH, SAFETY and maybe even their LIVES depend on this!!!!!"
He told local reporters that he fears his community will become a pharmacy desert.
The letter was Stevenson's last-ditch effort to keep the pharmacy in town.
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"I was just hoping to put pressure on them. To give me more time," Stevenson told NJ Advance Media.
"When big boxes come in, little people go away. Then when the big boxes close, there ain’t no little people to come back and run their stores."
CVS did not immediately respond to The U.S. Sun's request for comment.
LOCAL COMMUNITY ALSO SCARED
Paulsboro is a small southern-New Jersey town with a population size hovering around 6,000, according to the latest US Census.
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Over 20 percent of the area's population is over 65 years old.
"Absolutely a travesty. I had to transfer my stuff to Mullica Hill," an elderly resident, Lenny Curtis, said to Fox 29 about the store's closure.
The towns are around a 15-minute drive from each other.
"In the wintertime, you know I’m an elderly person, now getting in the car and getting out and going, it’s really a disadvantage."
Rite Aid also shut down a location in the town this year, leaving residents with fewer options for their necessary prescriptions.
"I want to know why they’re closing down all the pharmacies," Nadiyah Sanders said.
"My pharmacy was Rite Aid, but they switched us to Gibbstown and I don’t have a ride to Gibbstown. That’s a little long walk, especially when it’s hot out."
Paulsboro and Gibbstown are around 3 miles apart - about an hour's walk.
CVS told Fox 29 that customer's prescriptions will transfer to a nearby location in Wenonah.
The Wenonah location is 6.2 miles away - Google suggests the locations are 14 minutes away by car and nearly two hours on foot.
CVS CLOSURES
CVS announced it would close 900 stores.
In January, the giant pharmacy chain revealed it made the decision to shutter around 300 stores per year until 900 locations are closed by 2026.
The giant currently has 9,600 locations.
CVS and Rite Aid are not the only pharmacy chains cutting down on local pharmacies - Walgreens announced a mass shuttering of 150 stores as the retailer looks to ‘optimize locations.’
Other communities have feared becoming pharmacy deserts - here is another community in turmoil after a closure.
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Also, here is how customers can get their CVS orders faster.
