Chain drugstore closures in Detroit mean fewer retail options for residents without cars

For decades, Detroit has worked to attract corporate chains like Meijer and Whole Foods. Finally, both these brands entered the market in 2013. But long before these “big-box” stores came in, Detroit — and Highland Park and Hamtramck for that matter — included a swath of medium-box brands, in the form of drugstores.

Back in 2017, there were 40 Rite Aid, CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens stores in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck. Now, almost a third of them are gone, with just 28 stores left throughout those cities.

For some Detroit residents, getting to their local pharmacy quickly has not only been convenient, it’s been necessary.

Ms. Moore, who asked that Outlier Media not use her first name because debt collectors have been harassing her, doesn’t have a working car but used to be able to walk to a Rite Aid from her house on Oakman Boulevard.

“You can go to Rite Aid and purchase your medical supplies, incontinent briefs, all kinds of medical things,” said Moore, 80.

She has a heart condition and would often drop in at the Rite Aid to check her blood pressure. But a few months back, it closed.

“I’m at a loss now,” Moore said.

Detroitography put together maps for Outlier Media that show current and closed locations. While the number of CVS and Rite Aid stores declined, the number of Walgreens locations increased after the chain opened a small, pharmacy-only shop on Woodward Avenue and three pharmacies inside hospitals.

The overall decline of drugstores in these three cities don’t just mark the loss of pharmacies. They mean fewer places for residents to shop in their neighborhoods for the basics: things like bandages, scissors, makeup, or a pint of ice cream.

Some people can just drive to the drugstore in the next neighborhood over, but about a third of Detroiters don’t own a car. According to a Detroit Metropolitan Area Community Study, these residents are more likely to be “poor, black and female.”

A national trend

CVS announced in 2021 that it would close 900 stores nationwide over three years. In Detroit, the company has seven fewer stores than it did in 2017.

“Store closure decisions are never easy,” CVS said in a statement emailed to Outlier. In choosing what to shutter, the company said it looks at a number of factors, including how many stores are already in an area, population shifts, local market dynamics and more. “Maintaining access to pharmacy services in underserved communities is also an important factor we consider.”

Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy in October after facing opioid lawsuits and competition. It has closed or announced plans to close more than 100 stores in the U.S. since 2023.

The company has just four Detroit stores remaining. Rite Aid said it looks at factors like local business conditions, viability and store performance in deciding which locations to close.

Other pharmacies

Rite Aid and CVS stores are closing, but they aren’t the only pharmacies in town. Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck collectively have about 200 pharmacies that aren’t a part of a national chain. Many are part of Health Mart , a franchise network of independent pharmacies.

Stores in the Health Mart network, which is owned by health care company McKesson, often operate under their own unique names like 7 Van Drugs or Sam’s Pharmacy. As bigger pharmacies shut down in the area, smaller ones like these have had an opportunity to gain new customers.

New Atlas Pharmacy, a Health Mart member inside the similarly named but separate Atlas Market on West Davison Street near Linwood in Detroit, is not shy about trying to recruit former chain store patrons. After a Rite Aid closed on Livernois about a mile away, New Atlas posted a sign out front that said, “Welcome Rite Aid customers.”

“We have picked up a lot of the patients that are looking for new pharmacies due to the closings,” said Naz Qayed, the pharmacist at New Atlas.

He didn’t provide numbers but said since opening in 2022, their customer base is “growing on a monthly basis.”

New Atlas provides special services like free same-day prescription delivery and packaging pills into individual doses, with the date and time marked.

“They don’t have to think about, ‘Hey, did I take this medication or not?’ If it’s missing from here, then you’ve taken it already,” Qayed said.

The service is free. “A lot of pharmacies do charge for it. But I understand the demographic that I’m in.”

A store locator map for Health Mart members lists about 50 locations in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck. (To view store locations, type in the city name.)

PharMor, which uses Health Mart as a supplier for some of its locations, is headquartered in Southfield and has 14 stores throughout Detroit and Highland Park. Mohamed Sohoubah started the company after earning his doctor of pharmacy degree from Wayne State University and later working as a pharmacy manager at CVS.

“I could not find what I would call career satisfaction in the corporate environment,” Sohoubah said.

He left CVS in the early 2000s and set up his pharmacy inside a grocery store in Midtown. The PharMor brand grew from there.

“I started getting calls from other pharmacists who were in the same situation as I was. They were dissatisfied,” Sohoubah recalled. “And I just helped them start their own pharmacies. And that’s how PharMor became a franchise.”

There are now 11 PharMor locations in Detroit, three in Highland Park, and eight others throughout Wayne and Oakland counties. Sohoubah owns six himself and said many of the rest are owned by people who work as the pharmacists in their own shops.

“I think we’re very unique (for that),” Sohoubah said.

Serving Detroit

According to a Detroit Metro Area Communities Study published by the University of Michigan in 2019, more than half of insured Detroiters use a government program like Medicare (31.1%) or Medicaid (22.5%). This can put a financial strain on pharmacies.

“It’s a little bit harder because of how insurance programs are set up with reimbursing, but we’re managing it,” said Qayed from New Atlas.

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that urban pharmacies serving disproportionately low-income, uninsured and publicly insured populations faced heightened risks of closure — with independent pharmacies more likely to close than chain stores.

So how are smaller pharmacies in Detroit surviving?

Qayed’s store accepts every form of insurance but said there are hurdles to clear when choosing to operate in underserved areas. He said he has had to pay expensive application fees, was subject to on-site inspections and had to be open a set amount of time before he could accept certain forms of insurance.

The retail component

At least for now, smaller pharmacies located throughout the city are poised to help fill prescription orders for people who live in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck and lost their local Rite Aid or CVS. But where are these residents going to get the other items that were available at these stores?

Multiple Detroiters told Outlier they go to the nearest dollar store when they want to pick something up in the neighborhood. Those with access to reliable transportation head to big-box stores, often in the suburbs.

Alphonso Sims, an Atlas Market customer, said if he needs to buy over-the-counter drugstore items, he skips the neighborhood store and takes a trip to Walmart.

“We pile up, we get our dishwashing detergent, our washing powder, everything,” he said.

William Hansard and his son, also Atlas Market customers, said instead of going to a drugstore, they go to Walmart, Meijer or Target if they need to pick up toiletries like shampoo. “They got better prices anyway,” Hansard said.

Still, many of Detroit’s community pharmacies do stock a limited supply of non-prescription items. Some offer durable medical equipment like canes and walkers. Most offer over-the-counter medicine like cough syrup or antihistamines. They just tend to carry a smaller variety.

“We have the basics, the Pepto-Bismols, the Tylenols, the Motrins, but you can’t possibly carry everything out there in the market. What that leads to is overage (and) expired medications,” said Qayed of New Atlas.

Sohoubah said PharMor thought about including a more robust retail component but decided against it.

“We believe that market and that business is going to continue to go online,” he said.

Chain drugstore closures in Detroit mean fewer retail options for residents without cars · Outlier Media