Drugstore chain’s closures claim another Puyallup location, other sites
Rite Aid’s store shutdown plans have now claimed three of four Puyallup locations, according to the latest proposed store-closure list filed in the chain’s bankruptcy case.
The 10th notice of additional closing locations was filed July 3 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey as part of Rite Aid’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The latest list of 114 U.S. stores includes the Puyallup Rite Aid site at 11220 Canyon Road E.
Earlier closure announcements have listed Puyallup Rite Aid stores at 1323 E. Main Ave. and 12811 Meridian St. E.
That leaves the store at 9502 176th Street E., which will convert later this summer to CVS.
Amy Thibault is executive director of corporate communications – external affairs for CVS. In response to questions on Wednesday, she told The News Tribune via email that the chain was “planning to acquire and operate” the site.
She stated that the Rite Aid will close on Aug. 17, and it will reopen as CVS Pharmacy on Aug. 18.
As for the three Rite Aid sites that are closing in the Puyallup area, “We’re also planning to acquire the prescription files.” CVS will gain the files on the following dates:
▪ 12811 Meridian Street E. – on July 22
▪ 1323 E. Main Ave. – on August 5
▪ 11220 Canyon Road E. – on August 18
She added, “The prescription files from the three Rite Aid stores will be transferred to the CVS Pharmacy in Target at 3310 S. Meridian. Patients don’t have to do anything; the prescription file transfer to CVS Pharmacy will be seamless as well.”
She also stated, “We have no plans to close any CVS Pharmacy locations in Washington.”
Other Washington stores on the latest proposed closure list:
▪ Rite Aid: 18022 68th Ave. NE, Kenmore
▪ Rite Aid: 5840 N. Division St., Spokane
▪ Rite Aid: 5217 California Ave. SW, Seattle
▪ Rite Aid: 26817 88th Ave. NW, Stanwood
▪ Rite Aid: 2519 Main St., Union Gap
▪ Rite Aid: 205 Pine Ave., Snohomish
Thibault noted that “the closings are subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.”
As for other pharmacy transfers, a separate Rite Aid list shows the following Pierce County sites slated for closures transferring prescriptions to the following locations:
▪ Rite Aid, 3840 Bridgeport Way W., University Place, transferred to Fred Meyer Pharmacy, 6305 Bridgeport Way W.
▪ Rite Aid, 900 E. Meridian Suite 23, Milton, transferred to Fred Meyer Pharmacy, 1100 N. Meridian, Puyallup.
▪ Rite Aid, 5700 100th St. SW Suite 100, Lakewood, transferred to CVS Pharmacy, 5618 Lakewood Town Center Blvd. SW
▪ Rite Aid, 21302 State Route 410 E., Bonney Lake, transferred to CVS Pharmacy, 9400 192nd Ave. E.
▪ Bartell Drugs, 3601 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, transferred to CVS Pharmacy, 3320 S. 23rd St.
The list also showed some closing Rite Aid sites becoming CVS sites, including the Union Gap location, set to transition after July 31. To check your own location, visit the Rite Aid Pharmacy Closure and Transition page online.
Bankruptcy case update
Also on July 3, attorneys for Rite Aid filed an emergency motion to enforce the sale order “and compel performance by CVS Pharmacy under the CVS asset purchase agreements.”
According to Rite Aid’s attorneys, disputes have cropped up from CVS over the “lookback” period regarding the purchase price of Rite Aid’s prescription assets. There’s also a dispute over the meaning of “prescriptions filled” and whether CVS is “properly crediting Rite Aid for prescriptions that were transferred to CVS during the lookback period,” according to the filing.
“Although CVS may now wish that it had agreed to pay less for Rite Aid’s RX Assets, its transparent gamesmanship in no way alters its contractual commitments,” the filing states.
It added, “By advancing its specious interpretations ... CVS is attempting to escape its agreement to pay Rite Aid the full amounts owed for its purchase of Rite Aid’s RX Assets—with an estimated total impact of $50 to $60 million across all three disputes.”
In its preliminary response filed July 8, CVS’s attorneys wrote that the emergency motion was “an attempt to ambush CVS over a holiday to gain leverage, without legal basis for either the relief requested or the purported emergency on which the Motion is premised.“
The filing noted that the chain had offered employment “to over 3,000 former Rite Aid employees” in its agreement to purchase more than 60 Rite Aid stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington along with prescription files from approximately 625 Rite Aid locations across 15 states.
“CVS has also started the process of closing on the File Buy Transactions before it was required to do so, bringing millions into the Debtors’ estates well before the Debtors could have counted on receiving those funds,” the filing added.
The CVS response, while arguing against Rite Aid’s framing of the two sides’ disputes over the sales agreements, noted that on July 3 CVS had “paid the Debtors approximately $28.4 million in connection with the first set of closings of File Buy Transactions,” as CVS contended it was owed more.
CVS’s attorneys argued that the difference amounted to $5 million “and may be materially less once the parties hash through any factual discrepancies in their respective prescription counts.”
This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
