CLEVELAND — Rite Aid will be closing all but four of its stores in Ohio by the end of September amid its recovery from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the pharmacy chain confirmed to 3News on Wednesday.
In addition, all Rite Aid stores in Michigan will be shuttered by the end of next month.
Rite Aid says it will maintain these four stores in Ohio:
- Ashland - 419 Claremont Avenue
- Cambridge - 1045 Wheeling Avenue
- Uhrichsville - 735 North Water Street
- Wooster - 1955 Cleveland Road
"The decision to close a store is not one we take lightly. We carefully consider various factors in our decision-making, including our overall business strategy," Rite Aid told 3News in an email. "In addition, we were required to go through a retail sale process as part of our Chapter 11 process, which allows prospective buyers to bid on parts of our business. As a result, we made the difficult but necessary business decision to exit these markets."
An initial list of 154 Rite Aid locations to be closed was revealed last October, shortly after the pharmacy chain first filed for Chapter 11. Six of the 154 closings were in Ohio, including locations in Massillon and Youngstown. At the time, Rite Aid had more than 2,000 stores nationwide.
Since then, Rite Aid has slowly announced closings across the nation, including roughly 180 in Ohio and over 230 in Michigan.
"While we have had to make difficult business decisions over the past several months to improve our business and optimize our retail footprint, we are committed to becoming financially and operationally healthy," Rite Aid added in its statement to 3News.
On June 28, a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved Rite Aid’s restructuring plan, allowing the pharmacy chain to cut $2 billion in debt and turn over control of the company to a group of its lenders. NBC News reported that Rite Aid would emerge from bankruptcy with around 1,300 locations remaining.
So once all of the Rite Aid stores close in Ohio, what happens to your prescriptions?
Rite Aid says "prescriptions and pharmacy inventory from the impacted stores will be seamlessly transferred to Walgreens to ensure no disruption of service."
"We are fully committed to helping our customers make the transition to their new pharmacy, and we will operate our normal pharmacy operations up to and including our last day of business at these stores to ensure continuity of care so that our customers can refill any coming-due prescriptions," the Philadelphia-based company added.