NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Walgreens pharmacy store is closing Thursday, Feb. 22. 

 

A spokesperson for the company confirmed the closing on Thursday and said "We will make every effort to place impacted team members at nearby stores."

 

Pharmacy customers are being told their prescriptions will automatically transfer to the Walgreens at 212 Main St. in Williamstown. 

 

iBerkshires did not get a response on questions about the building being for sale or if other Walgreens in Berkshire County are also being affected.  

 

Walgreens announced last year the closure of 150 stores in the United States; it closed about 200 in 2019.

 

The location had formerly been a Rite Aid, which initially opened its 1,000th store in the L-shaped mall in 1982. Rite Aid sold its Massachusetts and Rhode Island stores to New England-based Brooks Pharmacy in 1995, a deal that included the North Adams and Williamstown locations. 

 

Brooks bought and demolished the old St. Francis' convent on Lincoln Street and built the existing store next to Big Y. It opened in December 2002.

 

A few years later, Rite Aid bought that along with 336 other Brooks stores, bringing an end to that regional chain. Walgreens entered the picture in 2017 when it acquired nearly 2,000 Rite Aid locations — including Adams, North Adams and Williamstown. Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last October and announced it would close about a quarter of its 2,000 stores. 

 

Walgreens is part of Walgreens Boots Alliance, an international health care, pharmacy and retail operation that has 12,500 locations in the United State, Europe and Latin America. 

 

CVS, which is located in the Big Y plaza, has previously indicated interest in a standalone building — it was cited as the interested party in the former St. Francis Church property. An outcry about demolishing the church at that time took it "off their radar."