Another Seattle Bartell Drugs to close amid Rite Aid bankruptcy rumors

If you’re a Seattleite in need of an after-hours prescription, your options are about to get leaner.

On Monday, employees at the Bartell Drugs in Seattle’s Uptown neighborhood told customers that the location, one of the region’s last 24-hour pharmacies, will close Sept. 10. 

It’s the latest of half a dozen closures since the family-owned Bartell Drug pharmacy chain was purchased by Rite Aid in 2020 – but it may have biggest impact on customers. 

After Sept. 10, the nearest 24-hour pharmacy will be a Walgreens near Issaquah, according to information provided to Bartell customers by staff at the pharmacy. 

“Yeah, I’m bummed,” said Elizabeth Moad, a 20-year customer at the Lower Queen Anne store, which opened in 1995 at 600 First Ave North. Moad said the pharmacy is transferring her prescriptions to a nearby CVS. “But CVS isn’t 24-hours [and] I don’t know what kind of service I’m going to get at CVS,” Moad said.

“This has been my Bartell since 2001,” added customer Lisa Porter after learning of the closure Tuesday. “It’s ridiculous.” 

On Tuesday, Rite Aid spokesperson Alicja Wojczyk confirmed the closure, but didn’t say if Rite Aid planned to convert another Bartell to a 24-hour schedule. 

Store staff, who began informing customers of the closure on Monday, said they were surprised by the news. Although Rite Aid has shuttered dozens of stores here and elsewhere as it grapples with heavy financial losses and legal woes, several employees said the Uptown location had remained busy. 

The store benefited from its central location, a large parking lot and proximity to a popular Metropolitan Market grocery, which sits below the drugstore, and had built up a large, loyal customer base, several employees said. 

The pharmacy generally saw customers until at least 2 a.m. and again starting at 5 a.m., said an employee who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to comment. 

Although aware of the earlier closures and reports of Rite Aid’s financial problems, the employee “thought they would keep us open and maybe close a different location.” The decision, which was shared with staff last week, “was a big surprise.”

Several staff said they’d been told the closure came because the store’s lease was up and the rent had been raised. 

Wojczyk didn’t respond to specific questions about the reasons for the closure. In a prepared statement, she said such decisions are “based on a variety of factors including business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability, and store performance.” She also said Rite Aid would “strive to transfer” all of the store’s staff to other Bartell Drugs or Rite Aid locations “where possible.”

For many Lower Queen Anne customers, the closure was the latest aftershock from the $95 million Rite Aid sale, which stunned Seattle when it was announced in October 2020. 

Despite repeated assurances by Rite Aid and Bartell executives that the sale wouldn’t change Bartell’s famous customer service or its heavy reliance on locally made products, both have suffered since 2020. 

There have been complaints of deteriorating service, backlogs at the pharmacies, shortened hours and products frequently being out of stock.

Some Bartell executives blamed the problems on the tight labor market and supply chain woes that bedeviled all retailers, and said some of the problems, such as pharmacy backlogs, have eased.

But some employees said the problems also stemmed from the cost-cutting Rite Aid undertook as it reorganized Bartell, a more than 130-year-old Seattle company that was struggling financially.

According to a Rite Aid financial report filed this year with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bartell had been facing “increasing net losses” and was borrowing to fund operations, and, absent the sale, “would have needed to incur further significant debt to cover the operating costs.”

Rite Aid had problems of its own.

The company faces hundreds of lawsuits, including by the U.S. Justice Department, over claims it contributed to the opioid epidemic. On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Rite Aid planned to file for bankruptcy, which could delay those lawsuits.

More broadly, Rite Aid has struggled in a tough industry dominated by much larger players. After Rite Aid tried and failed to merge with Walgreens and grocery giant Albertsons, the company has limped along in a distant third place behind Walgreens and CVS. 

That has resulted in major losses, including $307 million in the most recent quarter, and debt of more than $3.3 billion, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal.

The losses may have contributed to Rite Aid’s move to shutter nearly 200 locations in 17 states since January of last year.

By Monday, news of the latest closure was prompting waves of dismay on social media.

“It’s such a loss for the neighborhood really,” said one Facebook poster. “A 24/7 store, pharmacy, loyal staff….need I say more? Terrible news.” 

“My ex had a medical emergency in the middle of the night after surgery a few years back and they were the only place we were able to get supplies,” added another poster. “It’s such a neighborhood staple.”

Some posters speculated that the location had been a victim of the shoplifting that has plagued retailers in and around downtown. Others blamed rising rents and the push to replace existing shops with larger, more profitable buildings. 

The latter view was shared by Leanne Olson and longtime neighborhood resident and member of the Queen Anne Historical Society. She thinks the closure may have been inevitable, given the money to be made replacing the nearly 30-year-old structure with something newer and bigger. 

“This block is going to go,” said Olson as she stood outside the Bartell. She shook her head. “It’s a disposable town – always has been.”

An earlier version of this story contained a misspelling of Leanne Olson’s last name.