Rite Aid cashiers Tyrek Caesar and Claire Hernandez ...
... on one of their last shifts at the soon-to-close Church St. Rite Aid.
After Monday, Tyrek Caesar and Claire Hernandez will no longer be able to walk right across the street from class at Gateway Community College to work at the Rite Aid on Church Street — because the downtown pharmacy is shuttering for good, the latest victim to a wave of bankruptcy-induced closures for the national chain.
A Rite Aid spokesperson confirmed for the Independent via email on Friday that the Ride Aid location at 66 Church St. will be closing with the last day of business on Monday, Dec. 11.
Customers who currently pick up their prescriptions at that Rite Aid location can then pick up their meds at Walgreens.
“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,” read Rite Aid’s statement to the Independent. “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.”
The Rite Aid closure on Church Street comes as the national pharmacy chain has been shuttering stores across the country after it filed for bankruptcy in October. It also comes roughly a year and a half after Rite Aid closed its 249 Legion Ave. location in the Route 34 superblock in the West River neighborhood.
Bernadette Perry: Sad to see Church Street Rite Aid go.
On Friday evening, amid row after row of empty shelves, Caesar and Hernandez worked one of their last shifts behind the front registers at the downtown store. They rang up customers like Bernadette Perry, who lamented the downtown Rite Aid’s closure as she took a final opportunity to buy stockings, nail polish remover, hair spray, and a Mounds candy bar at one of her favorite New Haven shopping spots.
“It’s sad to see it go,” said Caesar, a 25-year-old New Haven native who is also a student at Gateway and has been working at the Church Street Rite Aid for four years.
He said he’s enjoyed working at the store, and is grateful for the skills he’s picked up — on how to handle money as a cashier, how to interact with customers and stock the shelves. He also said that the store has become a noticeably more difficult place to work since the pandemic. “People weren’t stealing as much” when he first started at Rite Aid, Caesar said. “After Covid, there’s been a lot more theft.”
66 Church St.
Hernandez agreed. A fellow Gateway student, she’s at the Church Street Rite Aid for only two months, having recently transferred from an East Haven Rite Aid after that store’s closure.
Hernandez joined with Caesar in listing the most frequently stolen items from the store: Diapers. Laundry detergent. Men’s razors.
Caesar said he’ll likely now try to get a job at Tweed New Haven Airport or the Amazon warehouse in North Haven. Hernandez isn’t sure yet where she wants to work next. One thing’s for sure: She’s done with retail.
