By Geoff Page
Ocean Beach will probably soon have a big empty eye sore right on Sunset Cliffs Blvd. The Rite Aid store, with an address of 4840 Niagara, will probably soon be a shuttered shell. A very big shuttered shell. [Editordude: its closure was confirmed Wednesday.]
Rita Aid has filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the first was in 2023. The result this time appears to be liquidation or sale to another company. These proceedings can take a long time so, until it all shakes out, the building will eventually end up closed and empty.
Rite Aid has said it is committed to keeping the stores open during the bankruptcy process. The pharmacies will keep operating in-store and on-line for now. But, the remainder of the available inventory in the store will slowly disappear and not be restocked.
Long time OB residents may remember when the building was a grocery store, the Mayfair Market. It was one of only two large scale grocery stores in OB at that time. The other was the Safeway on Santa Monica and Cable, later the Apple Tree Market, before it became CVS.
Mayfair closed a long time ago and became a Rite Aid. It was OB’s first corporate pharmacy-type company — then followed by CVS. Considering OB’s normally unfriendly reaction to corporate businesses coming to town, there did not seem to be much reaction when these two set up shop.
The CVS may have contributed to Rite Aid’s troubles but probably not. CVS has been open for several years and this is an overall corporate demise, not just some stores.
Eventually, when everything shuts down, it appears that Rite Aid might sell prescription records to another business with a pharmacy in an attempt to transfer folks as easily as possible.
It may be that Rite Aid is just going the way of many other big box kind of stores. Both Rite Aid and CVS carry a lot more than just pharmacy products, things that people buy on-line now. The pharmacy and pharmacy products section of the store only takes up about 20 percent of the space.
What will happen at the site is a question. OB now does not have a full-scale supermarket anymore. There is the Krisp Market on Newport, but parking for this store is practically non-existent. The Rite Aid lot, in contrast, can accommodate lots of cars. OB has gotten more upscale and might be able to support a supermarket again.
If not a grocery store, what else does OB need? It will take a large business of some kind to use that sizeable building. The problem is that many large businesses, that once used these big buildings, are suffering from on-line competition. An entertainment venue perhaps? Or the rumored PetCo?
Then, the most drastic idea of all, demo the building and put in housing. It is a big site and might accommodate a significant multi-family development. That is what is on the south side of Niagara, so it could fit.
Post script:
What Will Happen to My Prescription Records?
Rite Aid will try to sell them to another drugstore, grocer or retailer with a pharmacy. The company says it is working to put together a “smooth transfer” of customer prescriptions to other pharmacies.
But there’s no guarantee those files will wind up at a retailer near the location that is closing.
That maybe challenging because some Rite Aid stores are in rural areas, miles away from another pharmacy, noted Saunders, managing director of the consulting and data analysis firm GlobalData.
Prescription files can be valuable assets because they can connect the acquiring drugstore with a regular customer if that person sticks with the new store. Associated Press
Express Scripts has always worked well for me.
Maybe is big box drug stores didn’t rip customers off by charging exorbitant pricing, they MIGHT remain in business. There is a reason folks were purchasing many of the items these stores sold online, it was less expensive to have those items delivered to your door than to buy them at a bog box retail drug store. They also weren’t subjected to sub par customer service when shopping online.
When you get the same level of service from a physical store that you receive from a website, and you pay less for it, why wouldn’t you shop online instead of being ripped off by your local drug store?
Hi John:
You have made some interesting Points.
I suspect the real problem is the rising Cost of LABOR, coupled w/providing Security for your employees & customers, matched w/exorbitant Rent/Lease increases, paired w/rising Shipping & Delivery Fees…with the Final deathstroke having to deal w/rampant SHOPLIFTING & petty Thefts throughout the Day creating huge SHRINKAGE to their Inventory.
And YES, of course w/the increased Availability of Online pharmaceutical products coming from Foreign countries, the ability to operate any business successfully here in CA has become virtually Impossible.
I hope the RITE AID Property will still be utilized to provide Quality services to the Local OB Community, such as a Market or Store…but I suspect it will become another massive Housing Project w/ZERO Parking & just add more people & Cars on the street to an already overcrowded Ocean Beach community.
Robin, I see where you didn’t mention PROFITS and payments to investors — the high cost of capital. Plus you didn’t mention an over-extension of products; you know a pharmacy selling food and alcohol and beach attire and cards and candles and all sorts of cheap items made in China that Rite Ail cluttered its shelves with. Really? Shop lifters caused Rite Aid to close? This is certainly a management view. Oh, yes, high cost of labor. How many times have you been in Rite Aid and can’t find an employee to help you. And they’re making just above minimum wage, too. So, yeah, all those workers making 6 figures just caused the giant to crash.
Sprouts is in negotiation to lease the space.
Wow ! Good. Better than it sitting empty.
My sympathy to OB–my old home and still spiritual home. Now I live in Hillcrest and our Rite Aid is in the same decline–has been for the last number of years. Yes it’s a big box store but in our little section of Hillcrest it’s way more than that; it’s pretty much the only store and pharmacy for many residents who have lived here for years and it’s almost impossible to get anything except prescriptions. It’s really bad because the powers that be have allowed semi-skyscrapers to be built around it making everything harder. No these are not affordable they are market rate.
What does the skyscrapers going in (affordable or not) have to do with what’s going on with Rite Aid? The company itself is in decline and would be happening regardless the housing situation.
I think he was referring to the possibility of such a thing happening on the site that Rite Aid will be abandoning. Hopefully, the post about Sprouts is correct, that would be great.
I was there today and noticed that despite the upcoming closure nothing was on sale. I asked about that and was told there would be no sales in OB. Rather when it closed any remaining items would be sent to another (not known which) store for final sales.
There is a sign on the door Rite-Aid stating prescriptions will be transferred to CVS on June 11. Also, CBS 8 confirmed the Rite-Aid OB store will be closing:
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/nation-world/rite-aid-stores-closing-list-2025/507-3251e502-b063-4b6c-9245-779501adf6d8
CVS needs to up its game to accommodate the volume – closing the pharmacy at 6pm when some people are barely getting home from work is ridiculous. Gonna miss getting my Thrifty Ice Cream, which is a delicious, made in Southern CA, and costs a fraction of what one scoop costs at the 2 new ice cream shops in OB. Hope it’s Sprouts coming in!
Thank you Marianna — Indeed, this confirms it — the OB store is on the list of closures.
Every time I go to OB I stop for ice cream, my favorite food. I will miss eating my OB Thrifty Rocky Road in the vast parking lot of this place!
How about a bowling alley?
I worked for a beer distributor in the early 2000’s/ We used to send in pallets a week. Also huge displays. That place was half a liquor store. It was also constantly robbed by the locals.
It was basically the Times Square of OB. Oh well enjoy the mark-ups at your local non “big box “stores.