Possible Rite Aid closures impact customers
According to its website, Rite Aid has over twelve hundred stores in 15 states. In our area, there are locations in Horseheads on Grand Central Avenue and Westinghouse Road, as well as in Elmira on Pennsylvania Avenue and Mt. Zoar Street.
This is the second time Rite Aid has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, with the first being in October 2023. There are no official closing signs at any of the locations near Elmira. However, a sign says that gift cards and exchanges will no longer be honored after June 5th. Many customers are worried they will have to travel further out to get their prescriptions.
'It's very inconvenient because then we got to go out another way to go to another Rite Aid and we don't got time for that,' said one customer.
If the Rite Aid locations aren't bought out, there are other local options, like Gerould's Pharmacy. Frank Steed, a pharmacist at Gerould's, says mail order delivery is also one of those options.
'With the closures, it brings people in the community to have to find other providers that they need to get medication from. Those providers can be in a local pharmacy, they can go through a mail order program, or different types of sources. Locally, most of the pharmacies are prepared to help and be there for whatever needs that they have,' said Steed.
As of right now, the location of Pennsylvania is the only one that is being bought out, according to a representative at that location.
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