Rite Aid To Close 'Underperforming' Barnegat Location

BARNEGAT, NJ — The Rite Aid located at 895 West Bay Ave. in Barnegat will be officially closing its doors soon, Patch has confirmed.

The store's pharmacy will close first on May 13 and the store itself will close on June 16, a Rite Aid spokesperson told Patch.

The closure is one of many since the struggling drugstore chain filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy last October and announced plans to close 150 stores. Since filing for bankruptcy, Rite Aid has said it would close 431 stores.

Those with prescriptions at the Barnegat pharmacy will be transferred to ensure there is no interruption of service. Associates will be transferred to another location, if possible. About 75 percent of Rite Aid employees have accepted opportunities to transfer their location if their store has been or is part of the ongoing closures.

"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. 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," a spokesperson told Patch. "At this time, we have not made or confirmed any decisions on additional specific store closures as part of our financial restructuring process."