Downtown fixture fades away Unwelcome change comes to the churn of downtown

The building that until Wednesday housed a CVS pharmacy isn't much to look at architecturally speaking.

A two-panel mural near the entrance adds a splash of color, but for the most part the downtown building represents form over function, designed to meet its purpose as a retail store.

And for decades it did just that.

Built before the renaissance of American downtowns made urban living retro chic, the CVS mostly served cubicle denizens and the working poor passing through the nearby bus station.

But to folks like George Bell, that particular CVS location was a literal lifeline. And with its shuttering - part of a nationwide consolidation by the drug chain - he's left scrambling.

"I'm epileptic. I can't drive and it's hard for me to get around," Bell said. "I'll manage but getting my medicine will be more difficult for sure."

Economic pressure

CVS announced the closing in a typically corporate way - via official statement surely vetted by a small army of PR types.

The company deemed the closing of 900 locations nationwide a "consolidation initiative" and said its decision came after a careful process that looked at such weighty matters as local market dynamics, population shifts and "geographic access" points.

"Maintaining access to pharmacy services in underserved communities is also an important factor we consider when making store closure decisions," the statement said.

Mm-hmm.

Odd, but pronouncements glossed over arguably the biggest factor in these sorts of transactions: profitability and the bottom line.

Pressure from online pharmacies, Amazon and enormous Walmart moving into the market no doubt played a major role.

And a company like CVS Healthcare, publicly traded since 1996, had to respond. It's far more than a simple neighborhood drug store.

CVS Healthcare is a big corporation that owns CVS Pharmacy, its retail arm, CVS Caremark (a pharmacy benefits manager) and Aetna (a health insurance provider) - a one-stop shop in the modern American health-care industry.

To the little guy who might struggle to balance rent with the cost of prescription drugs, it sure looks (and feels) like shareholder value matters as much as convenient and affordable care.

George Bell, who moved here from Santa Rosa, Calif., gets around by bicycle and the downtown CVS meant ease and convenience for the man who lives on Social Security disability.

His prescriptions have been transferred to the CVS at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and New Walkertown Road - a newer, larger location. And getting there won't be as simple as taking a half-mile ride from his apartment off Sixth Street. He'll still take his bike but the volume of traffic crossing MLK will pose additional hazards.

"I'm not wealthy enough for Uber," he said with a laugh. "Not much choice there."

'Could be worse'

On its last official day, the downtown CVS looked (and felt) moribund.

Some of the metal racks had been partially disassembled and the supply of inexpensive canned goods, snack foods looked as if it hadn't been restocked in some time.

A lone employee removing items from shelves apologized half-heartedly for the state of disarray.

"We're closing," she said. "Not much left. The candy we have left by the register is half off."

Employees had been offered jobs at other locations, so the news for them wasn't all bad.

Still it represented change, unwelcome in a place that had become essential to people who survive day by day, and so the mood would be necessarily somber.

Across Fourth Street in Merschel Park, that new reality had already settled in as churn once again had come downtown.

Condos, the spanking new Kaleidium children's museum a few yards away on Third Street and a veritable feast of restaurants that came hand-in-hand with rebirth testify.

As one of those affected most, Bell sighed when asked for his thoughts on the matter.

"I can't be all dramatic about it, either," he said after a few beats. "I think about it like this. A lot of other people have it worse than me. I could be in Ukraine or the Middle East."

ssexton@wsjournal.com336-727-7481@scottsextonwsj