RAMONA, Calif. — Residents of Ramona are bidding farewell to Rite Aid as the pharmacy is about to close its doors for good in the community on Thursday.
“It’s a shame. Rite Aid has been around for a long time,” said Ramona resident Ben Ledbetter, who ABC 10News spoke to Monday outside the pharmacy.
Ledbetter said he’s been shopping at the Ramona location for decades and buys everything from drinks to snacks and magazines at the store.
Rite Aid announced on Sunday it had filed for bankruptcy protection. The company plans to close as many as 500 underperforming stores as part of a restructuring, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The drug store chain has billions of dollars in debt, slumping sales and reportedly faces over 1,000 lawsuits that claim its pharmacies allegedly filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers.
“It’s just really sad because I like the pharmacists here. They give me the injections. I’m not comfortable with anybody else so this is the last one I’ll have for a while," said Barbara Eastwood.
Eastwood said she has been shopping at the store for at least 25 years and said it’s much more than a pharmacy to her.
“I can get cards here. I like to get the fall decorations and the Christmas things that are here and it’s just kind of fun to go shopping here,” she says.
Rite Aid has over 400 locations in California, but a spokesperson wouldn’t tell ABC 10News on Monday what other locations could be closing in San Diego County.
Instead, the pharmacy chain sent a statement that said it has reached an agreement in principle with some of its senior secured noteholders on the terms of a financial restructuring plan “that will allow the company to accelerate its ongoing business transformation.”
The company said the bankruptcy protection process would allow it to resolve litigation claims "in an equitable manner."
The retailer has already closed a store in Escondido and sent customer prescriptions to CVS, according to an automated message on the store’s phone line Monday.
