Last week RiteAid announced that they are closing another South Jersey store, with this latest one located in Sewell Mantua Township on Woodbury-Glassboro Road.
The location sits directly at the corner of a busy commercial intersection (Lambs Road) directly next to a Cloud 10 car wash. Also at the intersection is a Super Wawa and a Dollar General store. Many also know this intersection as the location of the large former Sony Music plant.
This is the second Mantua RiteAid to close in recent months, with another location already closed on the Bridgeton Pike (Rt 45) at the end of 2023.
This is another sad announcement in the seemingly never ending list of closing RiteAid stores.
Less than a month ago I wrote about RiteAid closing in Berlin, Marlton and Pennsauken and then earlier in the same month it was Erial and Williamstown. In February I reported on store closings in Blackwood and Haddon Township.
RiteAid is going through a well publicized voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding which is being managed by Kroll Corporation, who is publicly chronically all aspects of the bankruptcy proceedings including store closing announcements.
According to Reuters, the bankruptcy was partially driven by RiteAid facing over 1,600 lawsuits alleging that the pharmacy chain ignored red flags and illegally filled prescriptions for addictive opioid medication.
That March article also stated that RiteAid had reached a bankruptcy settlement with lenders and they were expected to complete the bankruptcy case by late April (quoting company lawyers). That being said an announcement regarding the bankruptcy completion has yet to be made.
Earlier this month Bloomberg reported that RiteAid has shuttered more than 520 locations since the bankruptcy proceedings started, which was listed as its original target number at the beginning of the process. It is not clear how many additional locations are expected to be closed.
Typically once a store is presented on a list of closing, within a day or two the “Store Closing” signage appears on the store.
In my visit today at the Sewell Mantua location, the store closing signage is visible on the store exterior but it’s definitely a toned down number of signs from what I’ve seen in other locations, such as when the Blackwood-Clementon location recently closed.
My visit to the Sewell RiteAid was early morning ahead of the daily opening and I was not able to stop inside.
While there is no silver lining to stores closing and employees potentially needing to look for new jobs, the buildings left behind with these pharmacy closings are typically very solid modern construction in excellent locations, which can gain attention from other retailers who are looking to expand.
Just four days ago I wrote about a recently closed Walgreens in Glendora is set to become a Dollar General.
A closed Rite Aid on Cross Keys Rd. in Gloucester Township will open next month as a Grocery Outlet, and in Voorhees a Rite Aid on route 73 will soon become a Goodwill Center.
Links and Location
RiteAid Sewell Mantua (Closing)
500 Woodbury-Glassboro Road
Sewell, NJ 08080