Brookhaven Rite Aid to close May 2 — Pharmacy patients, records are being transferred to Walgreens

Published 9:38 pm Monday, April 9, 2018

Brookhaven’s Rite Aid will close its doors for good in three weeks, folding into Walgreens as part of a national buyout deal between the two corporations.

Signs posted outside the Rite Aid at 820 Brookway Blvd. say the store’s last day will be May 2, with all pharmacy patients and their records transferred to the nearby Walgreens at the corner of Hwy. 51 and Brookway Boulevard. Rite Aid pharmacy patients will be able to fill their prescriptions at that and any other Walgreens location from here on out.

The Brookhaven Rite Aid is one of 600 stores that will close over the next two years of restructuring as part of a $4.4 billion deal that will see Rite Aid sell 1,932 locations to Walgreens. Walgreens will rebrand and continue to operate the other 1,300 stores, but Brookhaven’s Rite Aid and others close to existing Walgreens locations will close. 

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The acquisition will give Walgreens almost as many stores as rival CVS Health, which operates around 9,600 pharmacies nationwide.

Walgreens has been trying to buy Rite Aid since 2015, but several deals have fallen through due to government antitrust efforts. Even the current deal — which was finalized last October and is only now coming into effect — was originally for more than 2,100 stores, but was shortened up in the end.

Walgreens is expected to spend around $750 million to take in Rite Aid, with plans to drop another half-billion dollars in store renovations.

Managers of the Brookhaven Rite Aid and Walgreens declined to comment.