Some depressing news in today’s Washington Post — the future of Cathedral Pharmacy, which has been a fixture along Connecticut Avenue NW for over 80 years, is looking rather grim, due to a recent audit which will likely lead to CVS pulling its prescription contract with the pharmacy.

The dispute stems from some HIV medication which Cathedral was provided under a D.C. program without invoices — and if CVS is able to follow through on its threats, it’d be the end for one of the last remaining vestiges of a time when heartless drugstores didn’t dot the landscape like so many Starbucks:

Cathedral’s owner of 38 years, Michael Madden, said the business won’t survive without CVS Caremark, which manages prescriptions for many major employers, including the federal government. Madden, 62, said a quarter of his customers are on the prescription program.

CVS Caremark said it is terminating Cathedral’s contract Friday because a recent audit found that the pharmacy was not complying with the terms of their agreement. Madden said an error led to the audit’s findings, but he said it was an honest — and ultimately harmless — mistake. He said CVS Caremark is canceling his contract because the company, which also operates a giant retail pharmacy chain, is trying to drive him out of business.

“It’s the death knell,” said Madden, who sought an injunction against CVS on Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court. “My customers are so hurt — it’s a crime what [CVS is] doing to them, as well as to us.”

Cathedral’s one of the last remaining places in the city where you can actually experience long-lost customer service: sure, its shelves aren’t the most packed in town, but if you ask them, they’ll order you anything you want — and it usually gets there the next day. Losing an independent small business is always a negative thing — but when its at the hands of the ubiquitous hand of the non-operational-self-checkout king, well, it somehow feels even worse.