American Pharmacy Retailer Rite Aid Closes Its Remaining Stores
This major American pharmacy retailer Rite Aid has confirmed the closure of its final stores.
On Saturday, the firm's website was updated with a message confirming: "Every Rite Aid locations have now closed. We thank our dedicated customers for their long-standing of patronage." The site also included a link for customers to obtain their prescription records.
Founded in 1962, the company was once one of the largest pharmacy chains in the country. In its heyday, Rite Aid operated up to 5,000 outlets.
However in the past few years, the company encountered monetary difficulties and a federal probe. Recent data showed fewer than 100 stores were still open.
Rite Aid had entered Chapter 11 in October 2023 and then in May 2025.
The firm also faced lawsuits over its involvement in the prescription painkiller epidemic. In 2022, Rite Aid paid up to $30 million to resolve legal claims claiming it fueled the spread of painkillers in the United States.
In the subsequent year, in its 2023 submission, the company indicated that restructuring would help it "resolve legal claims."
Rite Aid also faced a Justice Department lawsuit in which officials claimed the company's stores filled illegal prescriptions for oxycodone and fentanyl. The firm reached a resolution in mid-2024.
Other US pharmacy retailers have likewise been closing outlets throughout the United States, though various factors have been mentioned.
From 2021 onward, CVS has shut down more than 1,000 locations as part of a longer term initiative.
In a similar vein, Walgreens, which was not long ago purchased by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, closed 500 locations over the past year.
Experts have raised concerns about growing "pharmacy dead zones" in the United States, where millions of residents live lacking a drugstore close by and must travel to have medications filled.