Clean Living

Even before the final bankruptcy of Rite-Aid, which resulted in the closure of all of the Rite-Aid and Bartell's Drugs locations that weren't converted into CVS pharmacies, there were neighborhoods in the Seattle area where drugstores were thin on the ground.

Like here, for instance.

The Northwest Kidney Centers is in a former Rite Aid location that shut down some years ago. After that, a Walgreens moved into the now-empty store seen the right, just beyond the Taco Bell. (That side of the intersection is Seattle proper.) The Walgreens was there for a few years before it too closed, perhaps a year or two ago. Where people in this area go for their prescriptions now, I don't know. There had been a Fred Meyer store a few blocks further south into Seattle that people could have used, but it's also closed. I think that there is a shopping center with a supermarket, and perhaps a pharmacy to the west of this location, but it's a mile or two down the road.

There are still a few independent drugstores here and there, but CVS and Walgreens have most of the local market that isn't served by supermarket pharmacies. CVS didn't keep all of the Rite-Aid and Bartell's locations open, and, as seen here, Walgreens has also had some contraction in the local area. We'll see if the new acquisition stabilizes things, and people who need medications continue to have nearby places to get them.