Walgreens to Close Downtown Burlington Store Amid National Downsizing

Walgreens on Cherry Street in Burlington Credit: Colin Flanders ©️ Seven Days

Walgreens is closing its downtown Burlington store next month, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

The chain will soon begin notifying pharmacy customers of the closure and will transfer its files to another Burlington location at 514 Farrell Street, the spokesperson said. The company is also working to find impacted employees positions at other stores.

It’s unclear what will happen to the Cherry Street property once Walgreens vacates. According to city records, it’s owned by Brianne Chase and a trust for her late husband, David. It has hosted a drug store for decades but is in the heart of downtown — and could pose a major redevelopment opportunity.

The announcement comes as drugstore chains seek to reduce their brick-and-mortar footprints amid a profit decline that experts blame largely on reduced consumer spending and a slowing demand for COVID-19 vaccines.

Walgreens, which operates about 9,000 stores across the U.S., announced plans earlier this year to close about 150 of those locations, in addition to 300 more overseas. CVS, meanwhile, plans to cut nearly 1,000 stores over the next two years, while debt-ridden Rite Aid is preparing to declare bankruptcy.

Walgreens executives weigh several factors when choosing to close a specific store, the spokesperson said, including the “dynamics of the local market” and changes in consumer habits.

Burlingtonians are bound to wonder whether the city’s recent uptick in property crime pushed the downtown store closer to the chopping block. A few months ago, the company installed a surveillance device in the Cherry Street parking lot in a dystopian attempt to combat unlawful activity.

But while Walgreens has long complained about the economic impact of shoplifting, company officials conceded earlier this year that they may have overstated its impact on the bottom line, suggesting the recent wave of closures has more to do with evolving consumer habits.

Another downtown staple, Outdoor Gear Exchange, cited similar factors when it announced last week that it planned to open a second location in Essex ahead of an anticipated downsizing of its storefront on Church Street.

Walgreens has also been plagued by labor shortages, spurring discontent among both employees and customers.

This summer, the Vermont Office of Professional Regulation pursued disciplinary charges against the company’s nearly three dozen locations, alleging that staffing shortages had contributed to numerous vaccination and medication errors and had left some stores shuttered unexpectedly for days at a time. And on Monday, pharmacy staff at some stores across the country staged a walkout, citing poor working conditions.