Legion Ave. Rite Aid Closing; Actor Bummed

The Rite Aid at 249 Legion Ave. is scheduled to close on May 12 — only six years after it opened.

The news did not come to a surprise to at least one regular customer, Bill Kux, who said he rarely sees many other shoppers.

Also, the store has encountered challenges from the start: Right after the grand opening, a brick was thrown through the store’s window by a burglar. Twice.

On Monday morning, a shoplifter was seen being caught with an energy drink and a couple of snacks. The security guard didn’t seize or arrest the shoplifter but asked him to give up the items. The shoplifter complied and quickly took out the items from his jacket, and swiftly left the store. 

Rite-Aid regular Kux was shopping there, too, and said he is disappointed about the pending closure.

He shared his reaction on the ​“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH’s FM’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.

“I love this Rite Aid,” Kux said during a conversation on the ​“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. ​“I’m not surprised because no one ever goes here. That’s one of the reasons that I like to go here.”

Kux spent $23.84 at the store Monday. He bought a birthday card, two packs of toilet paper, and dishwasher soap. 

The pharmacy is also convenient, Kux said. He would often turn to their care for his regular shots.

Kux lives in Wooster Square but prefers the Legion Avenue location over the Rite Aid on Church Street downtown.

“I decided to drive a little further. This location has parking everywhere. I don’t have to keep driving around the block to park,” Kux said. ​“There was never anyone here, so you could just go up and down the aisles, and it has a lot more items. It’s twice as big. The one downtown has smaller items.”

Kux also appreciates Rite Aid’s rewards system.

“It’s not as good as it used to be,” Kux said, showing off his receipt. ​“But today, I got a total of 1,794 points. I don’t even know what that means, but it also says that the next purchase of $15 or more, I’ll get a discount of $3.”

The shelves inside the store are slowly emptying of items, Kux observed. Kux also has a place in New York and it gave him flashbacks to when his local Rite Aid there was coming to a close. 

“I remember seeing a lack of items but now knowing that they were closing down,” Kux said.at Rite Aid must have opened too many stores and now they’re closing them down.”

Rite Aid Senior Manager of External Communications Alicja Wojczyk released this statement to the NHI on Monday:

Since last year we have identified 145 stores for closure between fall of 2021 and June of this year. A decision to close a store is one we take very seriously and is based on a variety of factors including business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability, and store performance.We review every neighborhood to ensure our customers will have access to health services, be it at Rite Aid or a nearby pharmacy, and we work to seamlessly transfer their prescriptions so there is no disruption of services. We also strive to transfer associates to other Rite Aid locations where possible. As a full-service pharmacy company, we look forward to expanding in new ways to new markets to serve the needs of our customers.

Kux, who has been living in the city since the early ​’80s, said that it was nice to have a store in the median of the ​“Route 34 West” development , which used to be an empty lot. Now he will have to find a new place to run to for errands. Possibly the Rite Aid downtown, but he’s not sure yet.

When Kux isn’t running errands, he works as an actor and has a long background in the performing arts. He’s currently starring in the play These Not Easily Scattered, scheduled to open in three weeks in Philadelphia. He plays the lead role in the show, a half-hour monologue delivered by a gay man during the early AIDS crisis coming to terms with his own identity.