When Rite Aid announced it was closing 26 stores in New York state last October as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, patrons of its Hartsdale location were pleased to see it had been spared. That is no longer the case. Days ago, pharmacists and other employees there were told the location would be closing Thursday, Feb. 1, leaving merchants and residents alike reeling at the loss of an anchor store on East Hartsdale Avenue.
Many relied on this Rite Aid for prescriptions and vaccinations, particularly in the age of the triple threat – Covid, flu and RSV. (Hartsdale Pharmacy & Surgical across the street from Rite Aid also gives vaccinations.)
But Rite Aid Hartsdale was more than a pharmacy, said Paul Feiner, supervisor of the town of Greenburgh, of which Hartsdale is a hamlet.
“I am very upset,” he said. “Many of the residents on East Hartsdale Avenue are seniors and depended on the pharmacy for milk, eggs and toiletries. The closing of the pharmacy will create a big quality-of-life problem for many who don’t have cars.”
Rite Aid was also a place where neighboring restaurateurs might run in for a quart of milk or orange juice for some of their dishes and drinks. (In the Covid Christmas of 2020, we decorated our house with items from Rite Aid.) It was the place where you got that last-minute greeting card and gift bag; that go-to lipstick; that emergency chocolate bar, often at great prices. Now the sense of security that Rite Aid afforded is ebbing away.
“I’ve written to the CEO of Rite Aid (Jeffrey Stein), asking that they reconsider – something I doubt that they will do since they are in bankruptcy,” Feiner added. “And I have asked my assistant to create an online petition that residents can sign, asking the landlord to find a new tenant that will provide milk, toiletries, eggs and other essential items.”
Bankruptcy and restructuring – or just plain bankruptcy – seem to be a trend, or maybe they’re always in fashion. The Conran Shop, which was founded by Habitat creator Sir Terence Conran in 1964, is liquidating its French holdings, the last of the brand. We remember when Conran’s opened near Westchester County Center in White Plains in the 1980s, with Sir Terence himself holding court for reporters. Gone are those days.
Even the British royal family has not been untouched by the b-word. Earlier last year, Party Pieces – the business owned by Carole and Michael Middleton, parents of Catherine, Princess of Wales – went under, leaving creditors holding the bag.
But it’s not all gloom and doom. Pottery Barn opened at the Vernon Hills Shopping Center in Eastchester on Friday, Jan. 19. And back on East Hartsdale Avenue, residents and merchants can say hello early this year to the first Mobility City in New York state, offering equipment to serve the disabled. — by Georgette Gouveia
