Philly’s last Rite Aid stores will close in late August

A Rite Aid in Eastwick hadn’t received any shipment of inventory in about a week.

At this rate, assistant manager Lauryn Shivers said Monday, the store may not get another before it closes for good.

A phone survey of nearly two dozen Philadelphia Rite Aids found that the city’s last locations are set to close on Sunday, Aug. 24, with their pharmacy sections closing earlier.

That includes the Eastwick location. There, Shivers said, stock is OK for a place about to go out of business.

“We’ve got plenty of product left,” she said, noting that trucks had been clearing out the warehouses and bringing pallets of product in the weeks since Rite Aid announced its second bankruptcy. But “certain areas are running low.”

Customers have their choice of shampoo, conditioner, skincare, or makeup, Shivers said. But if they come in looking for toothpaste or first-aid supplies, they may be disappointed.

Business is slow, she said, and customers who do come in are usually headed straight to the pharmacy, which is set to close July 24, a month before the front end.

Rite Aids across the Philadelphia region are in similar straits as their final days approach.

The Navy Yard-based chain has not announced an official closing date, and company spokespeople did not return multiple requests for comment for this article.

The company has published an online list of where customer prescriptions will be transferred, and the last days of the pharmacy operations at those stores. However, it did not appear to be complete as of Tuesday, with some Philadelphia stores not included.

» READ MORE: The rise and fall of Rite Aid

Suburban locations are on a comparable timeline. According to bankruptcy documents, several Rite Aid leases in Philadelphia’s collar counties and South Jersey are listed for potential sale alongside city stores that are closing by summer’s end.

Rite Aid has said prescriptions will be automatically transferred to other nearby drugstores, including Walgreens and CVS, which purchased most of the pharmacy files. The company typically notifies customers of these transfers via mail and store signage prior to closures.

Of the 24 Philadelphia Rite Aids still listed as open this week on the company’s website, four had already transferred prescriptions to nearby CVS stores, according to automated messages customers now hear when they call their old Rite Aids. Two had transferred to area Walgreens locations.

Customers can also request their prescriptions be transferred elsewhere.

CVS is set to acquire the prescription files of 170 Rite Aids in Pennsylvania and 42 in New Jersey, spokesperson Amy Thibault said in a statement. Scripts will be “transferred seamlessly” to a nearby CVS, she said, or customers can request they be sent to a different location.

Walgreens spokespeople did not return a request for comment.

Staff at four Philly Rite Aids said they had yet to hear when exactly their locations would close.

“We don’t know yet,” said an employee in Roxborough, “but Rite Aid will let you know.”

Thousands of Rite Aid workers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey will soon be out of jobs.

CVS has already extended offers to dozens of Rite Aid employees in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Thibault said, and they “look forward to interviewing more.”

In Eastwick, Shivers said she doesn’t know where she’ll work next.

“I’m still trying to figure that out,” said the assistant manager. “Most likely CVS.”

At a Queen Village Rite Aid The Inquirer visited in late May, a box that resembles a tip jar sits on the front counter. A Post-it note on it reads: “Any job suggestions or business cards are greatly appreciated.”

Assistant manager Angela Gardin said she, too, didn’t know what her next move was, but she hoped to get a managerial job with another company after her store closes in August.

Gardin came up with the idea to place thank-you cards at the front of the store, so customers could express their gratitude. Dozens have written notes and taped them to a front window.

» READ MORE: Rite Aid files for bankruptcy again, plans to close or sell all stores

Some Rite Aids in Philly and elsewhere have already closed since the company announced the second bankruptcy in May.

At the time, it listed 345 locations in Pennsylvania and 60 in New Jersey. The count in Pennsylvania has since decreased to 275.

Even before this final round of closures, the pharmacy chain had been struggling. In recent years, it cut its Philly-area footprint by 40%, leaving vacant store shells across the region.

Second lives for these stores have included: a plasma donation site in Cinnaminson, a Halloween costume store in Center City, a Chick-fil-A near Fishtown, and a luxury pet hotel in Wayne.

In a couple months, dozens more zombie Rite Aids may sit empty, waiting for resurrection.

The Rite Aid closures only exacerbate an already fraught situation for independent pharmacists, some of whom are welcoming Rite Aid patients but may regret doing so amid low reimbursement rates, said Rob Frankil, executive director of the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists.

“If pharmacies are having trouble paying the bills now because they are filling prescriptions that aren’t profitable … it is not good to take on extra customers," Frankil said.

Pennsylvania has lost about 20% of its pharmacies in recent years, he added, and he worries the situation could worsen, decreasing access, especially in underserved rural and urban areas.