Walgreens Boots Alliance is pressing ahead with its multi-year store-closure campaign, and the next wave in 2026 threatens to strand older Americans who depend on nearby pharmacies for daily prescriptions and chronic-care support. The company’s Footprint Optimization Program, disclosed in its fiscal 2024 annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, targets underperforming locations and expiring leases across its U.S. retail pharmacy network. The Associated Press has reported that the chain plans to close 1,200 stores total, though Walgreens has not named specific locations or confirmed how many will shut down in 2026.
How the Footprint Optimization Program creates pharmacy deserts
Walgreens framed its closure strategy around cash-flow gains from exiting weak-performing stores, according to its fiscal 2024 Form 10-K filed for the year ended August 31, 2024. The document describes a multi-year effort to trim the company’s retail footprint by focusing on stores with poor financial performance or leases coming up for renewal. Walgreens also points to baseline access metrics such as the population living within five miles of its locations, a figure the company uses to argue that most customers will still have a store within reach after closures.
That five-mile radius, however, is the same benchmark that public-health researchers often use to define a pharmacy desert. A geospatial study published in Health Affairs Scholar and indexed in the National Library of Medicine developed a standard method for mapping deserts by measuring how far residents must travel to reach a pharmacy. The authors found that when a chain location shuts down in a census tract that barely meets the five-mile standard, the next closest option can be substantially farther away, particularly in rural areas and low-income urban neighborhoods. In these communities, independent pharmacies have already thinned out, leaving chains like Walgreens as the last remaining access point.
As Walgreens prunes its footprint, those marginal tracts are pushed closer to, or beyond, the desert threshold. For someone with a car and flexible work hours, an extra three or four miles may be frustrating but manageable. For an older adult who no longer drives, relies on a caregiver’s schedule, or depends on infrequent public transit, that added distance can make timely refills unrealistic. Over time, each closure compounds the problem, forcing patients to rearrange routines, switch pharmacies, or forgo medications altogether.
The federal government already tracks regions where basic health services are scarce. The Health Resources and Services Administration catalogs Health Professional Shortage Areas and Medically Underserved Areas in its HRSA data warehouse, and many of these zones overlap with communities served by Walgreens stores now at risk of closure. While HRSA’s designations are not pharmacy-specific, they highlight counties and neighborhoods where losing a single health access point can have outsized consequences.
Older adults bear the brunt
Seniors are especially vulnerable to the emerging pharmacy gaps. They fill more prescriptions per capita than any other age group and are more likely to manage multiple chronic conditions that require strict adherence to medication schedules. Common diagnoses such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease depend on consistent access to drugs that stabilize blood sugar, blood pressure, and cardiac function. When those medications run out, the resulting complications can drive emergency-room visits, hospital admissions, and long-term decline that might otherwise be avoidable.
Transportation barriers magnify the risk. Many older adults have stopped driving or limit themselves to short, familiar routes. Others live on fixed incomes that make ride-hailing services or frequent taxi trips unaffordable. In suburban and rural areas, public transit may be infrequent or nonexistent, turning a five-mile trip into a logistical hurdle that requires help from family or neighbors. Even in cities, mobility limitations, extreme weather, and safety concerns can make traveling farther for a prescription daunting.
Pharmacies also provide more than pills. They are often the most accessible health touchpoint in a neighborhood, offering vaccinations, blood-pressure checks, medication counseling, and over-the-counter guidance. For older patients who see their primary-care clinicians only a few times a year, the local pharmacist may be the professional who notices early warning signs, catches dangerous drug interactions, or encourages a needed doctor visit. When a store closes, that informal safety net disappears along with the prescription counter.
SEC filings and AP reporting confirm the scale
The clearest public evidence of Walgreens’ retrenchment comes from its own regulatory filings and from news reporting. In its 10-K, the company describes the Footprint Optimization Program as a multi-year initiative within its U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment, explicitly tied to lease expirations and underperformance. Management presents the strategy as a way to improve profitability and reallocate capital toward more productive locations and digital offerings. The filing does not list individual stores or a detailed closure schedule, but it underscores that the reduction will continue over several fiscal years.
Reporting by the Associated Press places the planned contraction at about 1,200 U.S. stores, a figure that would represent a significant share of Walgreens’ national footprint. The AP notes that this move aligns the company with other large chains, such as CVS and Rite Aid, that are also shrinking their brick-and-mortar presence amid reimbursement pressure, changing consumer behavior, and rising operating costs. Together, these pullbacks signal a broader restructuring of the retail pharmacy landscape rather than an isolated corporate decision.
For policymakers and community leaders, the challenge now is to anticipate where closures will turn thin access into outright deserts and to respond before older residents lose a vital lifeline. That may mean supporting remaining independent pharmacies, expanding delivery services, or integrating prescription access into community health centers. As Walgreens advances its optimization plan, the balance between financial efficiency and public-health impact will shape how safely seniors can age in place.
