Representative Pressley accuses Walgreens of racism for leaving neighborhood

| February 2, 2024

Walgreens decided to close a pharmacy in a Boston neighborhood. This neighborhood happens to be, according to Representative Pressley, 85 percent Black and Latino. Normally when an operation shuts down, the possibility exists that the decision-makers concluded that the costs were higher than the benefits. However, Representative Pressley made it appear that Walgreens made this decision for other reasons while leaving a lot of people without important medical needs.

From Fox News:

“Mr. Speaker, Walgreens is planning to close yet another pharmacy in the Massachusetts 7th. This time on Warren Street in Roxbury, a community that is 85 percent Black and Latino. This closure is a part of a larger trend of abandoning low income communities like the previous closures in Mattapan and Hyde Park, both in the Massachusetts 7th,” Pressley began.

“When a Walgreens leaves a neighborhood they disrupt the entire community and they take with them baby formula, diapers, asthma inhalers, life-saving medications, and, of course, jobs. These closures are not arbitrary and they are not innocent. They are life-threatening acts of racial and economic discrimination,” she stated.

Pressley noted how she, along with fellow Massachusetts Democrats Senator Ed Markey and Senator Elizabeth Warren, had demanded answers from Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth.

Last month, the Democratic lawmakers protested the store’s closure with locals in the neighborhood, arguing that vulnerable seniors in the low-income neighborhood would not be able to fill critical prescriptions, Boston25 News reported.

Pressley slammed the pharmaceutical company for not giving customers in the neighborhood enough notice. She accused Walgreens of being hypocritical in their commitment to health equity.

“Why was there no community input? No adequate notice to customers? And no transition resources to prevent gaps in health care? Shame on you, Walgreens. Having a website with talking points about health equity and underserved communities is not enough. Walgreens is a multi-billion-dollar corporation that needs to put their money where their mouth is and stop divesting from Black and brown communities,” she said.

Fox News has additional information here.

Category: Democrats, Economy, SJW Idiocy, Society

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Old tanker

It seems pressley is a bit ignorant about a free market. There is no law requiring a business to start, remain or close. Nor is there a requirement for notice that they are leaving. One should think that would be obvious to the race baiter there.

Then again, to a racist, EVERYTHING is about race.

Last edited 9 months ago by Old tanker
Fyrfighter

Pressley is EXTREMELY ignorant, about damn near everything!

Amonymous

Yep… once agsin:
comment image

KoB

Here’s a novel idea…maybe the black and brown community members need to stop divesting the merchandise from the shelves without paying for it?

Had a K Roger in the the little big town up the road. Front side across the street was an old established blue blood ‘hood that initially fought the store being placed there, for “zoning” reasons. The design of the store was changed to fit the “hood and it was built. Directly behind the store was a Section 8 complex. K Roger gave the City free space in the building for a popo station. Win win, Right. Along comes a new black mayor and called K Roger RAAAAYYCIST for having the popo in the store, and reassigned the LEOs to another building, that the city paid high rent for, about a mile away.

K Roger was losing over $250K A MONTH to shoplifting and/or “shrinkage”. K Roger wanted to close the store and the city sued them to keep it open. K Roger prevailed, shut the store down, transferred the employees to other stores, creating a “food desert”. The building sat, empty, for several years until a storage company bought it, put in high security fencing/systems. Where there used to be several hundred people employed and quick access to food/pharmacy/etc, now has three (3) rent-a-cops working an eight (8) hour shift just sitting there, watching the perimeter.

Fyrfighter

Democrat success story!

ninja

According to NBC Boston, Channel 10:

“Walgreens has cited changes in the market and buying habits of customers as factors in their decision.”

“The move is a hard pill to swallow for those who don’t have the means of transportation and depend on the proximity of this pharmacy.”

“Walgreens said it will transfer all prescriptions to the nearest location a mile away on Columbus Avenue and offer free same day delivery on prescriptions and other products for 90 days.”

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/roxbury-walgreens-to-close-wednesday-amid-community-backlash/3264131/

1000006568
jeff LPH 3 63-66

I guess the walgreens a mile away is in a different neighbohood that doesnt get robbed every day.

AW1Ed

Same Boston where the Mayor celebrated an “Electeds (sic) of Color Holiday Party” where whites were disinvited, right? It’s not Walgreens that’s racist.

Hack Stone

Did her Cracker husband attend?

Roh-Dog

I miss my high-trust society.
Gone are the days you could fill up then go pay.
How does this situation go back to normal?

Granting “her” premise; the catalyst is race, the dis-ease is -ism, then what’s the cure?
Force? Removal of the ‘problem races’ or the -ism afflicted would be one avenue.
Or does she want to ‘consolidate the means of production and commerce to the state’?

Why was there no community input? …. Walgreens is a multi-billion-dollar corporation that needs to put their money where their mouth is and stop divesting from Black and brown communities,

There WAS community input! If I was CEO, I’d say to her “‘black and brown’ is trumped by red ink in the business world, sweetheart”
These intimidation tactics of demanding answers from a CEO is theatre, he doesn’t owe you shit fuckheads.

Anonymous

Merit, makin a profit and having to obey the law are all “racist,” you know… /sarc

SFC D

My guess is that the community was contributing to the output of the store but not helping with the input of dollars. Walgreens doesn’t owe any community anything, no business should subzidize the community.

Anonymous

“Stakeholders” as left/leftards say (not stockholders)…

Scott

> Gone are the days you could fill up then go pay.

I spent a week over in England last September, and found that that’s how they still do things over there. First time I needed gas, I pulled up to the pump and looked for the card-swipe terminal. Not finding one, I went inside and asked the cashier about it. I was told that they still do pump-then-pay, and to come back inside to pay after filling up.

Both of the gas stations I stopped at were like this: one somewhere in Northampton, another just outside LHR before I turned the rental car back in. Having always had to pay before pumping for the 35 years I’ve been driving, it was a nice surprise.

Hack Stone

Here is a clue for The Squad Members; companies exist to generate money for the owner(s), employees and stock investors. If this particular store was turning a profit, they would have no reason to close the store. Do you think that it may have something to do with high taxes, over regulation at the local and state level, and the rampant thefts and physical assault against employees and customers? It is the behavior of the residents of this market that are causing the problem. Or perhaps she can look at this as an opportunity to put her money where he mouth is by gathering up investors, purchase this now vacant building, and set up your own pharmacy and retail store. It will be nothing but a moneymaker for her and her investors, because this location is a solid investment with zero risk.

(That last line was sarcasm for anyone who did not update their Sarcasm Recognition Software)

Hack Stone
SgtM

Gruesom can now follow those 3 stalwart illegals who beat on cops around.

5JC

What race were Hispanics again? I lost track.

Anonymous

Plus… what about those muslim arab/persian folk in the Mideast– might they not actually be BIPOC for left/libtards fervor?

5JC

Persians are actually Aryans. That upset Hitler to no end, But he played along to their face in order to undermine the British, plus he really appreciated their Jew hatred. But they weren’t master racy enough for him. They needed to be more hitlery like tall, blue eye and blonde hair.

Anonymous

Yep, officially hajjis be caucasians– you know, evil white people.

5JC

Arabs are just the same as Hispanics. Which is to say many races. Because it is no race at all.

Anonymous

Not black, asian or “hispanic” (as a admixture including native black/asian-derived ancestry + Spanish language) per se, so caucasian– you know, from the Causasus region– by default.

Prior Service

My new post-retirement goal is to join Walgreens, work hard, get to be a vice-CEO and go testify in Congress to the “honorable”Representative Pressley.
“Let me break it down for you, Barney-style. I see two colors of ink-red and black. I see no black and whites taking shoplifters to the clink. And your attitude stinks.”

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

She needs to read (if she CAN read) Kipling’s “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”, especially the last two stanzas.

USMC Steve

Phuck old baldy. They have the right to shitcan that neighborhood and go somewhere else any time they want to. And given that that area is mostly comprised of entitled welfare savages, it is wild to think they stayed there that long.

A Proud Infidel®™

How many times a day was that store being ripped off? There is NO LAW that prohibits anyone from shutting a money-losing outlet down. Remember Moochelle 0bama screeching about “Food Deserts”? Maybe next we’ll see libtard moonbats calling for Government-run commissaries in ghetto ‘hoods?

Last edited 9 months ago by A Proud Infidel®™
Roh-Dog

Far too fucking late, API®.

Hartford Considers Study of Opening City-Owned Grocery Store in North End (link)

….the cost is not known

Fucking REALLY?!
I’m shocked. (/s)

Also,
Could a CT grocery store work with income-based prices? One city’s plan could become a model; see how it works [Tehehehe, it won’t!] (link)

For Hartford residents, shopping for groceries also can mean long, costly bus rides out of the city to suburban supermarkets and where high prices can mean making difficult choices among essentials. And for families most in need, securing weekly meals may mean cobbling together what is purchased at stores with what is given out a food pantries.

….Customers meeting income guidelines can qualify for either 50% or 25% discounts on purchases by signing up for a free membership. If a potential customer doesn’t meet income guidelines, a membership still carries a 3% discount. Walk-ins off the street also will be welcome but would pay full price.

Flashback just a few decades ago, there was plenty of small mom-and-pops there to service the community. Then the riffraff was allowed to infect the area (New England Protestant ‘live and let live’ BS), good people moved, and now you have nothing.

Edit: one more!

“This resolution really came as a response to the idea that grocery stores have failed because they are not profitable in the North End,” Hercules said. “The solution is to put a dent in food disparity regardless of profit. That’s why the city is named as an operator in the resolution. So what about the constant messaging that grocery stores are not profitable? Let’s take profit out of the equation and actually do something about this problem.” –Tiana Hercules, CT “Working Families” Party, via this link.

Congrats, you played yourselves.

(I really hate these people)

Last edited 9 months ago by Roh-Dog
MustangCPT

Chicago’s new idiot mayor, Brandon Johnson, has the same idea. Yeah, THAT’LL work on the South and West sides of Chicago. 🤣🤣🤣

jeff LPH 3 63-66

If walgreens is so racist, how come they moved there in the first place. I see the demographics of the neighborhood and I guess the childrens parents don’t teach them right from wrong. or their kids wouldn’t be boosting (shoplifting)or holding up stores.. Just saying

Blaster

What I think I’m reading is that Walgreens is the actual victim from stealing and shoplifting, but are being further victimized by politicians for not accepting the ridiculousness of the area and making GOOD business decisions ?

Maybe the leadership of Walgreens should tell the politicians that “we’ll keep the store open, as long as YOU cover the cost of the losses from stealing/shoplifting”! From YOUR private bank account, not on the taxpayers!

Bubblehead Ray

First of all… I have to say, no matter how lousy she is at being a Cogress critter, I loved her on Star Gate.