Walgreens is next.

Count me curious

Apparently it went okay for Hilton, or great actually but I believe that was really rare

Yes.

Laughs in Aetna

I'm forced to use either CVS or ExpressScripts. I can get a one-off from somewhere else like Walgreens but chronic meds must be CVS or ExpressScripts.

CVS owns Aetna. 🙄

Unfortunately, the only independent pharmacy near me when I lived in the US peddled pseudoscience bullshit front and center, with a huge homeopathy rack and an MLM essential oils wall right next to the entrance. So I said fuck it, at least the grocery store pharmacy gives me antibiotics for free.

Point is, not all independent businesses deserve your money, if they value money over their ethical and scientific training, they're just aspiring to be the next big chain.

Be picky with where you spend your money, even if it's a "small business".

I used to use Rite Aid for my prescriptions and they automatically rolled them over to CVS. CVS has been a nightmare and keeps messing the prescriptions up.

Costco has been ok for me.

I second this!! My pharmacist has saved my butt so many times. He knows me by name and reminds me when my prescriptions are running low.

When my previous independent pharmacist went out of business, they transfered all of my prescriptions to the nearest Walgreens. I switched to another "independent" that was part of Rite-aid's network. The staff were poorly trained in customer service communications, passive aggressively taking control of every conversation and then not listening. I had multiple instances of prescriptions being lost or delayed, in one case for weeks. The owners didn't care why I as a customer found these experiences frustrating and eventually told me I should just go to Walgreen's. I did and the customer service has been so much better. Independent isn't always better.

The staff KNOWS me and what I take. I can’t tell you how valuable that can be. When I call, the pharmacist recognizes my voice.

This is why I don't go to my local independent. Small towns have no secrets.

Edit: I should add, I do mail order.

Our independents are conservative mostly, signs in front about Jesus and probably don't even traffic in contraceptives.

Oddly, best pharmacy near me is Walmart. Not kidding. The pharmacists are so good, didn't even blink when my trans kid got T, they will call to try to get the doctor to modify prescriptions to include or exclude generics for the best cost, they do immunizations (I get mine there not at the doctor, usually, much easier to schedule) & when Adderall was sold out everywhere they found it for my kid who needs it, when estrogen was sold out everywhere they found it for me. They can always quickly get my vials of injectable sumatriptan, other pharmacies can't. The combo of ridiculously powerful market share, mostly not affluent customers, and very good pharmacists who have been the same people for 15 years now, we got lucky.

The real reason I'm checking in... if winco gets chocolate malted crunch I may die of happiness

They have containers of Thrifty ice cream at Albertsons now.

Yeah I need that rainbow sherbet

1. Amazon and Target (and other competitors) took a lot of their business.
2. They were dealing with a ton of expensive lawsuits related to prescribing illegal opioids
3. Various economic factors including inflation

Weren’t the subject of a leveraged buyout mugging deal a while back? That might explain the high debt load.

Private Equity?

In 2025, Rite Aid emerged from its Chapter 11 restructuring with a significantly leaner operation and a new owner: a consortium led by Cigna’s Evernorth health services division and the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R).

Evernorth, Cigna’s health services arm, had long been eyeing Rite Aid’s Elixir PBM. Elixir, while facing challenges, possessed a significant book of business and a valuable infrastructure.

This wasn’t simply about a larger company swallowing a smaller one; it was about strategically dismantling and repurposing Rite Aid’s assets to maximize value and ensure the survival of its core pharmacy business.

So yeah, they bought the part of the business they give a shit about and are systematically closing the rest of the business, a.k.a. brick and mortar stores.

Private equity don’t really give a shit about that fixing any lthing. So they print a bunch of corporate word salad mumbo-jumbo about how they’re gonna fix shit and when it doesn’t work out, they’re like yep we got the money that we want and the business part that is valuable. Fuck the rest of it. Who cares if there’s another food desert, or whatever the medical equivalent is, and all the rural towns at the rely on these pharmacies for medication.

I guess Walmart pharmacy wins by default.

Alcohol never goes on sale.

they already shut them down, at least mine was months ago when they did their closeout sale and shutdown