Residents ‘shocked’ by news of Rite Aid closing in Pinckney

PINCKNEY — Residents are not happy that downtown Pinckney is about to lose its only pharmacy.

Rite Aid plans to close all Michigan stores, according to a report from the Detroit Free Press. That includes its location at 75 S. Dexter St. in the village.

“I feel bad for them because they’re awesome and they’re always busy,” Jo Ellen Soesbee, who lives nearby, told Hell. “I don’t understand why they are closing. I was shocked.”

Soesbee said he saw a rumor that the store was closing on a neighborhood networking app and asked a store employee, who confirmed.

“I moved all my pharmaceuticals to Costco,” she said. “They have the CVS down (in Hamburg County), but they’re going to be so overwhelmed.”

Although there are several pharmacies in nearby communities, she said, “There’s nothing for Pinckney.”

Rite Aid media representatives did not respond to a request for information left Friday by the Daily. Store employees told The Daily on Monday that they were not authorized to comment to the media.

No closing date has been announced.

Last week, news broke that Rite Aid planned to close all Michigan stores and move prescriptions to Walgreens, according to several employees of the drugstore chain.

The closest Walgreens is located in Brighton, about a 20-minute drive from Pinckney.

The Free Press also reported that the closures would come in waves over the summer, starting July 1, according to workers who were not authorized to discuss the company’s plans.

MLive reported Thursday that Rite Aid released a statement confirming that all stores in Michigan and almost all of those in Ohio would close. The company then tried to recall this statement.

“I’m not happy about it,” said Peter Becker, who lives in nearby Gregory. “It’s convenient (to have a pharmacy in town), and if I needed something small, I picked it up.”

Becker said he would “do some research” to choose a new pharmacy.

Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October and closed its stores following declining sales and opioid lawsuits against it and other pharmacies.

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The company has already closed two other locations in Livingston County, first in Brighton in 2022 and then in Howell earlier this year.

There are 186 stores in the state.

— The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Jennifer Eberbach at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Rite Aid was the only pharmacy in downtown Pinckney.