Rite Aid, once one of America’s biggest pharmacy chains, shut its remaining stores this week after struggling to keep the business alive in recent years.
“All Rite Aid stores have now closed,” the company’s website said. “We thank our loyal customers for their many years of support.”
As of Tuesday, the company had 89 stores still operating across 78 cities, according to ScrapeHero, a data company. It closed those remaining stores over the past few days.
Founded in 1962, the company was one of America’s largest pharmacy chains in its heyday.
At its peak, Rite Aid operated more than 5,000 stores, according to Drug Topics, an industry news outlet serving pharmacists. As of last year, Rite Aid operated more than 2,000 stores and had about 45,000 employees, including 6,100 pharmacists.
But the company faced financial struggles for years, competing with larger chains like CVS and Walgreens and fighting more than 1,000 lawsuits accusing it of filling illegal painkiller prescriptions.
In a bid to stay afloat, Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2023 and shuttered 154 stores. But it failed to recoup its business over the next two years and filed again for bankruptcy court protection in May.
Rite Aid’s story is like those of many other pharmacies that have struggled to keep their doors open over the past decade.
Nearly a third of drugstores in the country closed between 2010 and 2021, according to a study in the journal Health Affairs. Even the industry’s major players, like CVS and Walgreens, announced the closures of around 1,000 stores each over the last few years.
On its website, Rite Aid is providing customers with their prescription and immunization records.
The company has “played a critical role in supporting the health care needs of countless Americans,” Matt Schroeder, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement in May. “I will be forever grateful to our thousands of associates for their commitment to Rite Aid and its mission.”
Last week Mr. Schroeder announced on LinkedIn that he was starting a new position as the chief financial officer at Spotless Brands, a carwash company.
Jin Yu Young reports on South Korea, the Asia Pacific region and global breaking news from Seoul.
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