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There is little time left to shop or pick up prescriptions at the Vasco Plaza Rite Aid as the drugstore is set to shutter its doors for good next week.
The location at 1350 N. Vasco Road in Livermore is among nearly 200 stores across the country that are closing as part of the company’s restructuring process in the face of financial strain. The store’s last day of business is set for next Thursday (Dec. 14).
“Rite Aid regularly assesses its retail footprint to ensure we are operating efficiently while meeting the needs of our customers, communities, associates and overall business,” company officials said in a statement to the Weekly.
Rite Aid previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October.
“Rite Aid is utilizing a voluntary Chapter 11 process to strengthen its financial position and accelerate its business transformation,” the company said on its webpage dedicated to providing information about the restructuring process.
The webpage also clarifies that the company itself is not going out of business. Approximately 2,000 stores will remain after all of the currently planned closures are complete.
At the same time the company filed for bankruptcy, officials announced that it received a commitment for $3.45 billion in new financing from some of its lenders to support business operations throughout the process.
In court documents filed in November, the company included a list of 154 initial store closures that involved several locations throughout the state — most of which were in Southern California. The two Bay Area stores named at that time were in Santa Clara and Cupertino.
“In connection with the court-supervised process, we notified the Court of certain underperforming stores we are closing to further reduce rent expense and strengthen overall financial performance,” Rite Aid officials said.
While the Vasco Plaza store was not included in the initial wave, an additional 31 closures were listed in another court document last week. Locations in Capitola, Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe were also named in the second wave, among others.
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In addition to customers losing their neighborhood drugstore, employees will also inevitably be affected by the closures.
Rite Aid acknowledged it would strive to minimize the inconvenience in a statement back in October saying, “The Company is making every effort to ensure customers of impacted stores have access to health services, whether at another Rite Aid or a nearby pharmacy, and will work to transfer prescriptions accordingly so that there is no disruption of services. The Company will also transfer associates at impacted stores to other Rite Aid locations where possible.”
There is only one other Rite Aid store in Livermore located at 968 Murrieta Blvd. However, there are a number of other drugstores and pharmacies in the city, including CVS and Walgreens.
