Rite Aid "Corner" stores

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TenPoundHammer
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Rite Aid "Corner" stores

Post by TenPoundHammer »

When did Rite Aid start building its ubiquitous standalone "corner" stores? From what I can tell, they seem to date from the late 80s at least.

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

This store (901 W. Midland St. in Bay City) is the first type of corner-style Rite Aid that I've seen. I know this store dates from at least 1990, as my November 1990 Tri-Cities phone book lists it. It has the rainbow-colored stripes down the walls like older stores did. I think the stripes started in the 1980s or so.

The first Rite Aid here in Oscoda opened in 1990 in a strip mall slot — it didn't have a corner entrance or the blue "peak" over the entry, and it was a plain grey brick instead of the smooth tan walls of the Bay City store above, although it did have the rainbow stripes. Both this and a short-lived Rite Aid in a former Perry closer to downtown closed in 1997 when a new "corner" store opened about halfway between.

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

This is, by far, the most common "corner" type of Rite Aid, this one being Fenton Road at Bristol Road in Flint. I'm still bummed that the Ambassador Coney Island was torn down for it.

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

And this is a very old store on Jenner Drive in Allegan. I thought for sure this was a former Perry, but it wasn't. I have no idea how old this style is; probably 1970s. It almost looks like it might have began its life as some supermarket.

Image

And finally, this is the current Rite Aid prototype, showing up in the past two or three years.
jimbobga
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Location: Senoia, Ga

Re: Rite Aid "Corner" stores

Post by jimbobga »

Rite-Aid entered the Savannah, Georgia, market in the early eighties with four stand-alone stores. Since this stand-alone drugstore concept was new, the stores in Savannah tended to look just like the versions of drug stores seen at that time in shopping centers: flat roof lines, a plain facade, and an entrance on either the left or right, next to a long row of high windows along the rest of the front of the store. One really couldn't see into the store because these windows were above eye level. All of these stores were purposely built by Rite-Aid, but they only stayed in operation for about two years.

There is a store still in operation in Hogansville, Georgia, that also looks to be from the same vintage, although it has been altered somewhat to allow more visibility from the parking lot.
wrallen99
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Location: Austin

Re: Rite Aid "Corner" stores

Post by wrallen99 »

This one in Fremont, California at Fremont Blvd and Decoto Rd opened between 1997 and 1999, but lasted less than five years:

http://tinyurl.com/ykrkofp

The aisles were diagonal and was a pretty nice store. It is across the street from a Walgreens that has been there awhile and that maybe the Rite Aid couldn't compete with.
Last edited by wrallen99 on 07 Nov 2009 01:13, edited 1 time in total.
TenPoundHammer
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Re: Rite Aid "Corner" stores

Post by TenPoundHammer »

I've seen lots of drugstore duplicity of that sort. Near my aunt's house there's a Rite Aid and a Walgreens on opposite corners. The Walgreens is squeezed onto a very tiny lot, with hardly any parking; you have to go down a side street to use the pharmacy drive-thru. Only one mile east is another Rite Aid opposite a former Arbor/CVS that's now a Goodwill. Two miles south of that you'll find a Walgreens and an Arbor->CVS->Rite Aid only 200 feet apart.

Michigan has way too many Rite Aids. It seems that in some markets, where there was a Rite Aid and a Perry close to each other, they would convert the Perry to Rite Aid and then relocate both of them to corner stores (such as all the relocations in the Flint/Burton area that resulted in nearly a dozen Rite Aids so close together.) A very large number of former non-drive-thru Rite Aid and Perry stores were sold to Family Dollar and Dollar General. If I recall correctly, Rite Aid didn't have any stores in Detroit before the Perry acquisition. (Walgreens was also very scarce, with mall-based stores in Benton Harbor, Muskegon and Holland and none anywhere else that I've found.) Rite Aid also had some very undersized (about 4000 sf) stores in malls, including Lansing and Meridian malls in Lansing, as well as Maple Hill and Crossroads malls in Kalamazoo.
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