Downtown Manhattan’s Only 24-Hour Pharmacy Cuts Hours

The CVS at 253 First Ave., which had a pharmacy and front store that operated around the clock, has cut its business hours, according to a sign at the store’s entrance. With this new change, downtown Manhattan no longer has an operating 24-hour pharmacy. If residents want to fill a prescription between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. on a weekday, or between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. during the weekend, they might have to travel to the next closest 24-hour pharmacy—a Duane Reade in Murray Hill.

The First Avenue store joins numerous chain pharmacies across the city that have curbed operating hours, or even shuttered, in recent years. In 2021, CVS Health announced that it would be closing over 900 retail locations across the country through 2024, and the number of stores in Manhattan has dipped to under 60 as of two months ago, according to a Patch report. Duane Reade locations across the city have also been dwindling, and Rite Aid has shuttered three Manhattan locations in the last year amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Retail experts have attributed the decline of retail pharmacy chains to changing consumer habits, opioid settlement costs, labor shortages, increased competition and theft.

The shorter operating hours and closures of retail pharmacies nationwide have provoked concerns about “pharmacy deserts”: communities where residents have less access to pharmacies and have to travel farther to obtain medication.

A block away from the First Avenue CVS, Mount Sinai has been in the gradual process of closing Beth Israel Hospital, citing significant financial losses as a cause. The closure plan has faced loud opposition, including public outcry from community residents and a cease-and-desist letter from the state department of health, who argue that shuttering Beth Israel will stretch resources at the nearby hospitals—NYU Langone and Bellevue—thin.

When asked if the First Avenue pharmacy’s newly shortened hours were related to Beth Israel’s impending closure, CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault said that the decision was made after a recent review, which determined that the location no longer needed to be open 24 hours, and could switch to standard operating hours to “better align with customer demand.”

Thibault confirmed that only two of the drugstore brand’s 24-hour pharmacies remain open in Manhattan: one on the Upper West Side, and another in Hell’s Kitchen. Two Duane Reade 24-hour pharmacies also remain in operation in Manhattan, located in Murray Hill and on the Upper West Side, according to the store locator page on the Walgreens website.

The new operating hours for the 253 First Ave. CVS pharmacy are: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Saturday to Sunday, with a 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. lunch break. Front store hours are from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. every day.