The pharmacy chain originated in the Commonwealth in 1962.
Rite Aid pharmacies are shuttering across Pennsylvania. The Grindstone location in Fayette County is the last one the company listed for closure, according to a list on its website. The last day for that location was August 22nd.
As of the beginning of September, Rite Aid’s website still listed four Pennsylvania locations in Belle Vernon, Berwick, Coudersport, and Pittsburgh. None of the locations appear to be open.
On the website, store hours are listed for the Belle Vernon and Berwick locations, but the Coudersport and Pittsburgh locations say they are “closed all week.”
Rite Aid was originally founded in 1962 as Thrif D Discount Center. It was based in Cumberland County for years and moved its headquarters to Philadelphia in 2022.
In May, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It indicated plans to sell off its prescriptions, pharmacy and front-end inventory, and other assets.
Rite Aid, while struggling with decreasing sales, was met with allegations that the company knowingly filed hundreds of thousands of unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances, contributing to the country’s opioid crisis.
This led the company to reach several costly settlements before first filing for bankruptcy in 2023.
Following the spring’s bankruptcy filing, the company began rapidly closing stores.
Rite Aid formerly operated 1,240 stores across 15 states, with 345 stores serving customers in Pennsylvania.
As of early September, Rite Aid was operating 70 stores across 12 different states. Four of those stores were the ones that appeared to be closed in Pennsylvania.
According to the company’s website, 29 pharmacies remain to be closed this month. The final two stores, located in Washington and Oregon, are slated to close on September 29th.
Rite Aid’s closure list said where the pharmacy chain planned to send scripts that were not individually transferred by patients.
