Rite Aid appears to be all but extinct in the state where the pharmacy chain was born.
The company's Grindstone location in Fayette County is the last listed for closure according to a list on Rite Aid's website, which says its last day was Aug. 22.
According to a recent Philadelphia Inquirer report, Grindstone, south of Pittsburgh, was Rite Aid's last pharmacy in the state, though it said the retail sections of a few Philadelphia-area stores were expected to survive for a few days afterward.
Rite Aid's website still listed four Pennsylvania locations as of Friday, Sept. 5 — Belle Vernon, Berwick, Coudersport and Pittsburgh — but none of the four appeared to be actually open.
The website still listed operating hours for Belle Vernon and Berwick, but listed the Coudersport and Pittsburgh stores as being "closed all week."
A call to the Berwick location was transferred to an automated system for a nearby CVS Pharmacy. The Coudersport location's number was answered by a Weis Pharmacy in Wellsboro. The Belle Vernon line was continuously busy, while the Pittsburgh number — which was for a store in the Pittsburgh International Airport — did not answer.
Rite Aid's press office did not respond to a recent request for information about the chain's remaining stores in Pennsylvania.
Founded in 1962 in Scranton as Thrif D Discount Center, Rite Aid for many years was based in Cumberland County, near Harrisburg. Its headquarters moved to Philadelphia in 2022.
Bankruptcy and a rapid decline
Rite Aid in May filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The chain indicated it was looking to sell off its prescriptions, pharmacy and front-end inventory, and other assets.
The company had been struggling financially for many years amid a challenging retail landscape, particularly for pharmacies.
One of the geographical challenges Rite Aid faced is that its remaining stores were widely spread out, clustered mostly on the East and West coasts, with relatively few in between.
Already struggling with falling sales, Rite Aid was rocked by allegations that the chain knowingly filled hundreds of thousands of unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances, contributing to the nation's opioid addiction crisis.
The company reached several costly settlements, and in 2023 first filed for bankruptcy.
Overshadowing all of those issues have been reimbursement struggles, particularly involving Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs. It's a topic WVIA has covered over the past year as state officials fought to pass legislation that would bring some relief.
This spring's bankruptcy filing was accompanied by a rapid closure process.
The Berwick store that was still listed as open on the website as of Friday was among those listed for an early round of closures back in May, according to business magazine Fast Company.
At that time Rite Aid said it operated 1,240 stores in 15 states, including 345 stores in Pennsylvania.
As of Friday Rite Aid was down to 70 stores in 12 states, according to the website — although that tally includes the four apparently closed Pennsylvania locations, and possibly also closed stores in other states.
If the company's closure list remains accurate, 29 pharmacies remain to be closed this month, with the final two — in Washington and Oregon — set to shut down on Sept. 29.
The Pennsylvania closures have only expanded the state's growing pharmacy deserts, which are defined as places where the nearest drugstore is at least five miles away. It is a problem for urban as well as rural areas.
What happened to customers' prescriptions?
For those who didn't individually transfer their prescriptions to a new pharmacy, Rite Aid's closure list indicated where they planned to send the scripts.
In Western Pennsylvania, many appear to have been transferred to supermarket chain Giant Eagle's pharmacies. Others in Pennsylvania were transferred to Weis Markets' pharmacies or to rival Walgreens, but the vast majority were transferred to another rival, CVS, the nation's largest pharmacy chain.
"We successfully acquired the prescription files of 42 Rite Aid pharmacies in New Jersey and 173 Rite Aid pharmacies in Pennsylvania. The closings began in late June and were staggered throughout the next several weeks, with the final New Jersey and Pennsylvania acquisitions completed on August 8," CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault said.
"We’ve also hired and onboarded roughly 600 former Ride Aid employees in New Jersey and Pennsylvania who expressed an interest in joining the CVS team and continuing to serve their patients," Thibault added.
