The end of an era
After more than six decades of serving communities throughout the United States, Rite Aid has finally closed all its remaining stores. The company officially announced this in a statement on its website:
“All Rite Aid stores have now closed. We thank our loyal customers for their many years of support.”
It is the passing of a well-known American retail chain that began business in 1962. For decades, Rite Aid was cornerstones of communities, offering prescription care, health products, and its iconic Thrifty Ice Cream. But after decades of fiscal struggles and constricting competition, the chain has permanently shut down.
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From bankruptcy to closure
Rite Aid’s downfall was years in the making. The pharmacy store chain filed for bankruptcy in October 2023, weighing more than $4 billion in debt and thousands of lawsuits alleging that it filled illegal opioid prescriptions.
Although Rite Aid emerged from bankruptcy in September 2024, having shaved $2 billion off its debt and shuttered approximately 500 stores, it was too little, too late to save the company.
The company now had about 1,250 stores, which was about half of the stores that it had in 2023. In early 2025, the company decided to shut down all its remaining stores, effectively ending business nationwide.
What happens now for customers
The website of Rite Aid has been mostly shut down, but it is still up to allow past customers access to their pharmacy records or find another pharmacy nearby.
Earlier this year, Rite Aid sold the majority of its pharmacy business to CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons, and Kroger. Together, the chains bought more than 1,000 Rite Aid pharmacies, allowing customers to view their prescriptions filled with minimal disruption.
But the downfall of Rite Aid pharmacies means fewer neighborhood drugstores in most locations—especially small towns or rural communities where drugstores were already scarce to begin with. It is more difficult for older adults or people with mobility issues to obtain drugs locally.
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The changing drugstore landscape
Rite Aid’s shutdown is also part of a larger trend in the United States retail pharmacy industry. Even the bigger players like CVS and Walgreens have been cutting back as shoppers change their behaviour, go more online, and face more expenses.
CVS said in 2021 that it would close 900 stores by the year 2024, following the closing of 244 during the period from 2018 to 2020.
Walgreens informed in 2024 that it will be shutting down 1,200 stores, admitting that about a quarter of its stores are not profitable.
Decline of the old-fashioned drugstore mirrors the changing way Americans buy medicine and health products. Numbers no longer go to mail-order or web pharmacies but rather capitalize on convenience and discounts. But that eradicates face-to-face opportunities for those who still rely on neighborhood pharmacists for guidance and service.
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Remembering Rite Aid’s past
Having originally been established in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1962, Rite Aid grew extremely fast in the 1970s and 1980s to become one of the nation’s largest chain pharmacies. It peaked at over 4,500 stores located all across the nation.
Among Rite Aid’s most beloved traditions was its Thrifty Ice Cream, so beloved that it became a nostalgic standard for much of its customer base. Even during periods of economic downturn, Thrifty was one of the few bright spots for Rite Aid—though now owned by another entity.
Rite Aid was something to America beyond a drugstore. It was where individuals went to have prescriptions filled, bought something to grab at the last minute for a birthday or holiday, or stopped by to pick up an ice cream cone after school for their kids.
Even though its doors will never again open, Rite Aid’s legacy will live on for the communities it served and families who spent their youth shopping its shelves.
