On a Friday afternoon, at least a dozen people walked through the doors of the Rite Aid in downtown Syracuse, picking up prescriptions, buying toilet paper or grabbing a bag of chips on their lunch break from work. In one month, they will have to find somewhere else to buy their necessities. On Dec. 10, that 40-year-old Rite Aid will close.

The Rite Aid at the corner of Salina and Fayette Streets is the only pharmacy in downtown Syracuse. The pharmacy, which operates in the back of the store, will close on Nov. 26, and the store will stay open for an additional two weeks to sell the remaining products, said Phil Caruso, a Walgreens spokesperson.

Walgreens, which acquired the store in May, is closing the Rite Aid and moving all the prescriptions to another Walgreens-owned Rite Aid at 522 W. Onondaga. St. Caruso said the other store is about one mile away on the city’s Near Westside.

Before it was Rite Aid, the location was F.W. Woolworth’s, a dime store. In 1979, Rite Aid bought the building at 301 S. Salina St. and covered the terracotta facade with brown metal lining. In 2015, it announced that it would restore the original exterior, including a large clock that used to sit above the door. In 2017, Walgreens announced it would buy many Rite Aid locations nationwide.

Caruso said the store would be closing, along with 600 other Rite Aid locations around the nation. In May, Walgreens acquired 1,932 Rite Aid locations, including at least two in Syracuse.

“I’m shocked and in disbelief. Everything in Syracuse is closing,” said Syracuse resident Alexandra Hervey. “They said we’ll have to go to West Onondaga and I guess I don’t have a choice.”

Caruso declined to comment on why the downtown Rite Aid was closing. All employees, including the manager of the Rite Aid, were instructed not to speak to media, but to refer them to corporate headquarters.

Walgreens previously announced that it would be converting the Rite Aid locations into Walgreens stores. The two are still completely separate brands under different ownership, Caruso said. He didn’t have any details of the conversion of the location downtown, he added.

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“We announced about a year ago that we’d be closing some of the locations that we acquired,” Caruso said. “Our goal is to just really make sure we have the right number of locations in the right markets so we can really serve the best customers.”

Caruso added that Walgreens plans to place many of the Rite Aid’s employees in jobs at other area stores.

The Downtown Committee of Syracuse, a private, not-for-profit, professional downtown management organization representing all property owners and tenants within the central business district, did not respond to a request for comment.

Published on November 25, 2018 at 9:19 pm

Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert