Rite Aid customers in Michigan and Ohio have been left scrambling to find new pharmacies at which to get their prescriptions after the drugstore hastily closed every location in both states.
The company’s most recent bankruptcy filings, which the Daily Mail obtained, show that Rite Aid has closed a staggering 74 stores so far in August — with all but two being in Michigan or Ohio.
The other two August closures were in California and Washington.
Since the pharmacy and convenience chain filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in October 2023, 2,000 stores have become approximately 1,100, the outlet reported.
In total, 234 Rite Aids in Michigan and 183 in Ohio have either already been shuttered or are in the process of doing so.
On top of struggling with debt and facing fierce competition from online pharmacies, like Amazon, Rite Aid has been hit with more than a thousand lawsuits accusing it of filling illegal prescriptions for opioids, the New York Times reported.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint against Rite Aid and its multiple subsidiaries in March, alleging that the business filled prescriptions for amounts of opioids “that had obvious, and often multiple, red flags indicating misuse.”
Other major convenience and drugstore chains have been failing around the country. Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, 99 Cents Only, and more retailers have closed thousands, if not all, of their locations.
There were nearly 2,600 retail store closures documented within the first four months of 2024, according to the Daily Mail.
“If that trend continues, almost 8,000 will have been lost by the end of the year,” the analysis found.
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