BELLE VERNON, Pa. — When you walk up to the doors at the Rite Aid on Rostraver Road in Belle Vernon, you’ll find the doors are locked, and the store permanently closed.
“Wow, what’s going on?” asked Marilynn Taylor of New Eagle. “[I’m] very disappointed.”
Taylor stopped by the Rite Aid to pick up some allergy medicine.
“I just stopped to pick up some Allegra,” she told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek. “I’m usually up here quite a bit because I stop at Walmart, and I usually come over here if I need stuff, so I’m really disappointed and surprised.”
Belle Vernon’s Rite Aid is one of three local Rite Aids to close in this round of store closures. The others are a location in Oakland, and the location inside the Pittsburgh International Airport.
More closures could be coming.
Taylor is concerned for people in smaller towns who rely on Rite Aid for prescriptions.
“Where are they going to go? I mean, they’ll have to find other pharmacies, but yeah. It’s going to be bad,” she said.
Some communities are trying to get ahead of any possible closures of their Rite Aid locations. Derry Borough Councilman Nathan Bundy said if their Rite Aid closes, the nearest full-service pharmacy would be nearly 20 minutes away by car.
“Our residents here may or may not have access to a vehicle, may or may not have access to reliable internet, and may or may not even have a cell phone to order prescription drugs or use a delivery service,” Bundy said.
There is no word on when, or even if, the Derry location will close. But Bundy said council contacted Rite Aid, local, state, and federal representatives to urge the company to sell this location to another pharmacy.
“That was our only pharmacy, that was our only convenience store,” Bundy said. “I believe in the potential of our town, and I believe in our residents, and I believe there is economic opportunity here.”
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