Rite Aid store in Atwater closes abruptly, amid chain’s bankruptcy woes

Other stores in Northern California are also on the closure list

Pharmacy customers outside the closed Rite Aid store in Atwater on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023, read a notice that prescriptions have been transferred to a nearby CVS Pharmacy. The Atwater location is among 31 California stories closed as part of the company’s bankruptcy process. Credit: Michelle Morgante/CVJC

By MICHELLE MORGANTE

Central Valley Journalism Collaborative

Oct. 20, 2023

ATWATER (CVJC) – Doors to the Rite Aid store on Bellevue Road in Atwater have been locked after the store became the only San Joaquin Valley location to be shuttered as part of the pharmacy chain’s bankruptcy process.

The location closed abruptly on Wednesday as Rite Aid released a list of 154 locations in 15 states slated for closure. Rite Aid’s signage from the building was also removed. The list also identified 30 other stores in California.

Customers arriving at Rite Aid on Friday to pick up their prescriptions said they’d received no notice about the store’s closure. A sign posted by the locked doors advised pharmacy customers that their prescriptions had been transferred to a CVS Pharmacy location one mile west on Bellevue Road. 

The Atwater store was the only Rite Aid location in the city. Otherwise, the nearest Rite Aid stores are located in Merced and Livingston.

Two Rite Aid stores in the Sacramento area are included on the closures list, in addition to a store location in Santa Cruz and another in Monterey. 

Rite Aid operates approximately 2,000 stores and employs more than 45,000 people, according to company documents. A company spokeswoman did not respond to questions from CVJC about how many employees were affected by the Atwater closure or what assistance was being offered to them, although a statement said the company strives to “transfer associates to other Rite Aid locations where possible.” 

Rite Aid was not listed among the businesses filing layoff notices in the most recent report posted Friday by the California Employment Development Department. 

“A decision to close a store is one we take very seriously and is based on a variety of factors, including business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability, and store performance,” the company said in a statement.

“For our customers, we make every effort to ensure they have access to health services, whether at another Rite Aid or other nearby pharmacy, and we work to seamlessly transfer their prescriptions so there is no disruption of services.”

Michelle Morgante is the editor-in-chief for the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, a nonprofit newsroom based in Merced.