Roxbury is getting something neighbors say they have badly needed for years: a walkable, full-service pharmacy. CVS is slated to open this July at 32 Warren Street in Nubian Square, planting itself right across from the Nubian Square bus depot and filling a gap left by a wave of local drugstore closures. Big red "coming soon" stickers now cover the storefront windows, a loud signal that a major chain is on its way back to a corridor where residents say basic medicine and everyday essentials have gotten harder to reach.
For many in the neighborhood, the reaction has been simple: relief. Neighbors say having a pharmacy this close could be a lifeline for seniors, people living with chronic conditions, and anyone who relies on buses instead of a car to pick up prescriptions.
Signs Of A New Store
The first public hint that CVS was officially moving in came with those bright window decals and a target opening in July, originally reported by WBZ NewsRadio. The outlet noted that the new store fronts directly onto the bustling Nubian Square bus depot, putting it in the daily path of riders crisscrossing the city.
WBZ also spoke with residents on the street, many of whom said the fresh signage was the first real confirmation that a big-name pharmacy was returning to the area after a long dry spell.
Pharmacy Access Is Shrinking
The excitement is not just about convenience. It is coming against a backdrop of shrinking pharmacy access across Massachusetts. A DataPoints brief from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission found that nearly 200 pharmacies closed between 2019 and 2025. The same analysis estimated that about 580,000 residents live in what it calls "pharmacy deserts," meaning they lack convenient walking access to a nearby pharmacy.
The commission reported that closures have increasingly clustered in urban, lower-income neighborhoods, and warned that losing local pharmacies can ripple into lower vaccination rates and worse medication adherence. Those findings have helped fuel ongoing policy conversations at both City Hall and Beacon Hill about how to keep pharmacies in the neighborhoods that need them most.
Neighbors Say It Cannot Come Soon Enough
Residents who spoke with WBZ did not mince words about how much a Nubian Square CVS could change their daily routines.
"It would be a blessing for a lot of people to be close [to a pharmacy] because a lot of people live around here," a neighbor identified as Ben told WBZ NewsRadio.
Another resident, Andre Victorian, told the station that "people need their medication" and pointed out that many of the neighborhood drugstores he once relied on have already closed. Those closures, he said, now force residents to travel much farther to get routine prescriptions filled.
City Hall Weighing A Countermeasure
While a national chain moving in may ease the immediate crunch, city leaders are also looking at ways to keep smaller, locally rooted pharmacies alive. District 7 City Councilor Miniard Culpepper filed an ordinance in April that would create a Pharmacy Stabilization and Access Fund to support independent and nonprofit pharmacies, according to the Bay State Banner.
As Culpepper described it to the Banner, the fund would be managed by the Boston Public Health Commission and could help pharmacies cover basic operational costs such as rent or staffing. Advocates argue that kind of targeted support could help keep long-trusted neighborhood pharmacies open, especially those that offer vaccinations, health advice, and other services in addition to filling prescriptions.
Why It Matters
Local reporting has tracked how reimbursement pressures and rising business costs have put independent drugstores under strain. Coverage by CBS Boston on Kornfield Pharmacy in Nubian Square highlighted the financial squeeze smaller shops face as they try to stay competitive on prescription prices while maintaining staff and services.
The disappearance of those neighborhood mainstays tends to hit certain groups hardest: older residents, people with mobility challenges, and anyone who depends on public transit for medical care. For many of them, a new chain pharmacy arriving on a major bus hub may not be perfect, but it is a concrete improvement while policymakers hash out longer-term fixes to protect smaller players.
CVS has not yet publicly released details about the Nubian Square store's hours, specific services, or whether customers will see delivery options or expanded clinical offerings. For now, neighbors say the "coming soon" posters are enough to signal that a long-missing piece of local infrastructure could finally be on its way back.
