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I switched to Kaiser a while back after reading a books that suggested they offer better care due to how they are organized. They do their own pharmacy and now it’s just mail-order. Works out much better for me especially since the only pharmacy in town (rite aid) closed.
I have yet to need something immediately yet but I’m sure it will be a pain to acquire.
I thought they already did this. The 1 in my town closed a month ago, and all the ones near me closed as well. Someone better buy thrifty ice cream and not fuck up the chocolate malted crunch.
They have containers of Thrifty ice cream at Albertsons now.
I saw it at a Safeway recently, but they didn't have the chocolate malted crunch which is my fucking jam. I need to find some
Yeah give it another look, I know they have that flavor at my Albertsons (don’t have Safeway here).
Yeah I need that rainbow sherbet
medicine/soap,etc. was cheaper at walmart, everything like snacks was overpriced, id go for the ocassional post holiday sales, even the icecream was overpriced
If you can find an independent pharmacy in your area, then by all means, switch.
I need to take prescription meds every day, so I deal with the pharmacy more than I want to. My hatred of chain pharmacies runs deep. In my case, the independent one is a little further, but it ultimately saves me time and frustration. The staff KNOWS me and what I take. I can’t tell you how valuable that can be. When I call, the pharmacist recognizes my voice ffs
Our independents are conservative mostly, signs in front about Jesus and probably don't even traffic in contraceptives.
Oddly, best pharmacy near me is Walmart. Not kidding. The pharmacists are so good, didn't even blink when my trans kid got T, they will call to try to get the doctor to modify prescriptions to include or exclude generics for the best cost, they do immunizations (I get mine there not at the doctor, usually, much easier to schedule) & when Adderall was sold out everywhere they found it for my kid who needs it, when estrogen was sold out everywhere they found it for me. They can always quickly get my vials of injectable sumatriptan, other pharmacies can't. The combo of ridiculously powerful market share, mostly not affluent customers, and very good pharmacists who have been the same people for 15 years now, we got lucky.
I second this!! My pharmacist has saved my butt so many times. He knows me by name and reminds me when my prescriptions are running low.
Unfortunately, the only independent pharmacy near me when I lived in the US peddled pseudoscience bullshit front and center, with a huge homeopathy rack and an MLM essential oils wall right next to the entrance. So I said fuck it, at least the grocery store pharmacy gives me antibiotics for free.
Point is, not all independent businesses deserve your money, if they value money over their ethical and scientific training, they're just aspiring to be the next big chain.
Be picky with where you spend your money, even if it's a "small business".
Laughs in Aetna
I'm forced to use either CVS or ExpressScripts. I can get a one-off from somewhere else like Walgreens but chronic meds must be CVS or ExpressScripts.
CVS owns Aetna. 🙄
Its such bullshit, how is it allowed. I hate it.
My sympathies
walgreens is closest to me for convenience of location, but i think walgreens is not doing so well as of lately, they close a ton of stores in my area.
I used to use Rite Aid for my prescriptions and they automatically rolled them over to CVS. CVS has been a nightmare and keeps messing the prescriptions up.
CVS gave my wife a bottle of pills with no label. Luckily she's in the medical field and had the pill identification app on her phone so she could double check she got the correct script.
The staff KNOWS me and what I take. I can’t tell you how valuable that can be. When I call, the pharmacist recognizes my voice.
This is why I don't go to my local independent. Small towns have no secrets.
Edit: I should add, I do mail order.
It bears asking at this point, given the revelations of recent years concerning private equity firms: were Rite Aid's "financial struggles" the result of poor management, adaptation to changing market trends, etc., or were they purchased and eaten from the inside out like a cow that fell into a piranha-infested river?
Count me curious
Apparently it went okay for Hilton, or great actually but I believe that was really rare
Maybe hotels are immune, given that they're full of drunk and/or sleeping businesspeople instead of piranhas. Wasn't aware of that case, I'll add it to the shortlist of exceptions to the rule of private equity destroying everything in its path.
Dang, I guess selling shit that you can get for half the price across the street just isn't a good business model. No one could have seen that coming!
You should see Shopper's Drug Mart in Canada. I'm surprised it works and is extremely profitable.
The article mentions nothing of Thrifty Ice Cream
The real reason I'm checking in... if winco gets chocolate malted crunch I may die of happiness
Their website says it's available at Albertson's and Von's (Safeway)
Woah a reason to go to Safeway. Thanks stranger
Rite Aid previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023, which allowed it to cut $2 billion in debt and close hundreds of stores.
And not a word on HOW THE FRACK they were 2B in debt!!!
Private Equity?
In 2025, Rite Aid emerged from its Chapter 11 restructuring with a significantly leaner operation and a new owner: a consortium led by Cigna’s Evernorth health services division and the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R).
Evernorth, Cigna’s health services arm, had long been eyeing Rite Aid’s Elixir PBM. Elixir, while facing challenges, possessed a significant book of business and a valuable infrastructure.
This wasn’t simply about a larger company swallowing a smaller one; it was about strategically dismantling and repurposing Rite Aid’s assets to maximize value and ensure the survival of its core pharmacy business.
So yeah, they bought the part of the business they give a shit about and are systematically closing the rest of the business, a.k.a. brick and mortar stores.
Private equity don’t really give a shit about that fixing any lthing. So they print a bunch of corporate word salad mumbo-jumbo about how they’re gonna fix shit and when it doesn’t work out, they’re like yep we got the money that we want and the business part that is valuable. Fuck the rest of it. Who cares if there’s another food desert, or whatever the medical equivalent is, and all the rural towns at the rely on these pharmacies for medication.
I guess Walmart pharmacy wins by default.
Private equity bought them after they filed for bankruptcy. Doesn't explain how the were $2B in debt before the chapter 11
Years of accumulating debt, competition from larger chains like CVS and Walgreens, and costly opioid lawsuits had pushed Rite Aid to the brink.
https://tinygrab.com/who-bought-rite-aid-in-2025/
Yes they had debt before, that’s why they went bankrupt in the first place. Now they are going bankrupt because private equity decided to buy the business and sell off what they don’t want.
Also just a bad business model as well, trying to be a shittier more expensive Walmart or Target is pretty stupid. If it was just the pharmacy, food, and maybe clothes if they were cheap the business would've probably done better.
So a gas station with a pharmacy and minus the gas station? That’s the business model?
Pretty much yeah, there's a reason why some of the last independent stores are convenience stores. It's because they're relatively cheap to operate and you don't need a particularly large customer base to maintain profitablity, frankly speaking the problem they usually run into is zoning regulations and not being more mixed into residential.
I’m pretty sure there’s a Rite Aid near where I am and it’s almost always closed. The only other option is the CVS that’s in Hannaford. Another 35 minute drive in the opposite direction to Walmart. 45 minute drive in the other direction to a CVS.
Weren’t the subject of a leveraged buyout ~~mugging~~ deal a while back? That might explain the high debt load.