Customers of 9 Pittsburgh-area Rite Aid stores closing trying to figure prescription logistics

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — Rite Aid is closing 154 stores nationwide as part of its recent bankruptcy filing and a number of them are in southwestern Pennsylvania. 

The imminent closure is sending customers of its pharmacies scrambling to find a place to get their prescriptions. 

In just five days, the lights of the Moon Township Rite Aid will be shut off one last time and the doors will stay locked forever, leaving customers wondering where they’re going to get their medications.  

“We need this store,” said LaRuth Stewart-Shields. 

Stewart-Shields and Tracey Coleman have been customers of Rite Aid for decades. They said they’ve been worried ever since learning their neighborhood store was closing its doors permanently. 

“We live in Coraopolis but when we go get medicine down there, it’s not there all the time and we have to come up to Moon Rite Aid to get the medicine,” Stewart-Shields said. 

Rite Aid, the third biggest stand-alone pharmacy, blames falling sales and legal troubles stemming from opioid prescriptions for its demise. But closing stores like Rite Aid can hurt access to medicines and health care, creating what’s called pharmacy deserts or neighborhoods without easy access to a drugstore.

“This is not right. It’s not fair, it really isn’t,” Stewart-Shields said.  

Customers of the closed stores told KDKA-TV Rite Aid has promised to transfer their prescriptions to nearby pharmacies. In Moon Township, there’s a Giant Eagle in the same plaza as the Rite Aid, and both Walgreens and Walmart a block away. But customers are still concerned it won’t be as convenient. 

“I take care of my mother’s prescriptions and now I don’t know where they’re going to go. I do everything online. I get the text for refills, pay online. I’m gonna have to set that all up,” said customer Jennifer Dauer. 

“I’m not sure if their insurance covers other pharmacies,” said customer Valerie Matthews. 

Many seniors who don’t drive use the Moon Township Rite Aid, which compounds its closing. If its customers don’t have a car or a ride to the new pharmacy, people worry about what will happen to them.

“What can we do to fight to keep it open?” said customer Tracey Coleman. “Maybe start a picket line or something. It’s not right what they’re doing. It makes no sense.”