More Philly-area Rite Aids will close soon, transferring prescriptions to nearby pharmacies
Eight area locations will close in the coming weeks on the heels of the Philly-based chain filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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More local Rite Aid stores are set to close in the coming weeks, on the heels of the Philadelphia-based pharmacy’s chain’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing this weekend.
The closures, which will impact customers in the city and suburbs, come after the company closed 190 stores nationwide in the last fiscal year. Over the past year in Philadelphia, the company has closed about 18 stores, including six in the past month, according to United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, which represents employees of local Rite Aids.
The following stores will soon shut their doors, a Rite Aid spokesperson confirmed Wednesday after the Philadelphia Business Journal reported they were among the locations that went up for sale.
In Philadelphia:
5612 N. Fifth St. in Olney
2401 E. Venango St. in Port Richmond
In the suburbs:
350 Main St. in Pennsburg
37 Juliustown Rd. in Browns Mills
1636 Route 38 in Lumberton
210 Bridgeton Pike in Mantua
108 Swedesboro Rd. in Mullica Hill
1434 S. Black Horse Pike in Williamstown
The chain recently closed stores in West Philadelphia, Grays Ferry, Fox Chase, Chester, and Camden, “with ample notice,” Rite Aid spokesperson Alicja Wojczyk said Wednesday in a statement.
“A decision to close a store is one we take very seriously and is based on a variety of factors, including business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability, and store performance,” she said. “For our customers, we make every effort to ensure they have access to health services, whether at another Rite Aid or other nearby pharmacy, and we work to seamlessly transfer their prescriptions so there is no disruption of services.”
In the Quakertown area, however, Stacie Vetro said the recent closure of one nearby Rite Aid and the forthcoming closure of another has caused the single remaining store to become overwhelmed.
“It makes it very difficult to get through on the phone,” said Vetro, 46, who goes to Rite Aid once a month to pick up medication for her 17-year-old son who has a neurological condition.
After her store on Broad Street in Quakertown closed recently, she said her son’s prescriptions were transferred to the Pennsburg location, which is now also preparing to shut down. She feels lucky, she said, that she called to transfer her son’s prescriptions to the other Quakertown Rite Aid, which is staying open, before news spread of Pennsburg’s pending closure.
In recent days, she said, it’s been impossible to get through to the Quakertown Rite Aid on the phone. And when it came time to pick up the prescriptions earlier this month, Vetro said she had to go to the store twice — once to ask pharmacy staff to fill the prescription and then to get the medication.
“It’s a lot easier to just make a phone call and say the medication needs to be filled,” she said. “Now we can’t get through to do that.”
She hopes that the issues get straightened out soon, she said, and that the bankruptcy doesn’t mean her new Rite Aid, one of only two pharmacies she can go to under her insurance, will also close soon.
Wojczyk on Monday had said Rite Aid would keep evaluating its footprint and closing underperforming stores “to further reduce rent expense and strengthen overall financial performance.”
Rite Aid’s online store locator map will continue to be updated, showing the stores that are open at riteaid.com/locations/search.html.