CVS is the next up to close stores in Connecticut. Their locations on 777 Main St. and 690 Wethersfield Ave. will be closed by mid-March.

CVS said people will have access to their prescriptions at the other two stores in Hartford, or at any other CVS location of their choosing. They say all the staff at both locations are being offered comparable roles within the company.

Regardless, people we spoke with in Hartford say their local CVS is too convenient to lose.

“They can close any other store but this one,” one local shopper said.

“I’m not happy,” Ambuj Bajbai, of Hartford, said.

“I will be sad because I use this store,” Evens Delicete, who works in Hartford, said.

In a statement to NBC Connecticut, CVS said:

“Maintaining access to pharmacy services in the communities we serve is an important factor we consider when making store closure decisions. Other factors include local market dynamics, population shifts, a community’s store density, and ensuring there are other geographic access points to meet the needs of the community.“

CVS closed nine stores in Connecticut in 2024, but they say there are no other closures planned for 2025 at this time – other than these two.

They’re not the only big brand store to close storefronts in our state. Since 2023, retailers including Walgreens, Stop & Shop, Gamestop, Bob’s Furniture, Big Lots, Advance Auto Parts, Rite Aid, BuyBuyBaby and Party City have closed some or all Connecticut locations.

“We saw with COVID some of these operations actually closed. Certain box stores filed for bankruptcy. CVS, and we can even say Walgreens, they’re all trying to get ahead of the curve here,” Brian Marks, an economics expert at the University of New Haven, said.

He said brands of all kinds are feeling the pressure of the growing online marketplace.

He expects companies to change the way they operate a storefront and predicts products with more functionality to pop up in some of these desirable locations.

While it’s not new to see stores come and go, Marks said the shopping landscape is way different than it once was, and it’s still changing.

“What we’ve seen is a trend of what it means to be online. And if you do not pivot, even small entrepreneurs will need to pivot because you cannot rely solely on foot traffic anymore to be sustainable,” Marks said.