The only Rite Aid in Claymont has closed. (Ken Mammarella photo)
Rite Aid’s declaration of bankruptcy in mid-October was quickly followed by the announcement that it was closing two stores in Delaware – in Chestnut Hill Plazanear Newark and at 3209 Kirkwood Highway, near Prices Corner.
The only Rite Aid in Claymont – at 2713 Philadelphia Pike – closed Nov. 16, but without any announcement to customers.
The company did not respond to requests for information about the closure in Claymont or whether any other Delaware locations are scheduled to be closed.
On Take Back Claymont, a private Facebook group, posters said that the store’s last day was Nov. 16.
People also said that they were surprised that prescriptions filed at the Claymont Rite Aid were transferred to Walgreens. Others said that employees told them it was contracturally or legally mandated to be transferred to the nearest pharmacy. Walgreens has a location at 1508 Philadelphia Pike.
After the bankruptcy, Rite Aid said it was closed 154 stores nationwide. Hundreds of more Rite Aid locations are likely to close, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Walgreens is also closing locations, the Take Back Claymont discussion continued. A Brandywine Hundred location at 4201 Concord Pike (near the Silverside Road intersection) is permanently closed, and there’s a Walgreens at 2119 Concord Pike, in the Fairfax Shopping Center.
Pharmacy closures are a trend.
“More than 16 percent of the independently owned rural pharmacies in the United States shut down between March 2003 and March 2018,” The Washington Postreported, citing a policy briefby the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis at the University of Iowa.
Drugstore chains “are closing thousands of stores, leaving gaps in communities for medicines and essentials. Researchers find pharmacy closures lead to health risks such as older adults failing to take medication,” CNN wrote in October.
Pharmacies and pharmacists were hit hard during the pandemic, and Delaware lost all of its 24-hour pharmacies.
