Final Riverdale Rite Aid to close, leaving seniors with fewer pharmacy options

The Rite Aid on 21B Knolls Crescent — the last location in the northwest Bronx — will permanently close July 29. Spuyten Duyvil residents are already saddened by the loss of a community staple. 

All 178 Rite Aid locations in New York City will be closed or sold by next month, according to a letter to employees cited by multiple news sources. 

Rite Aid announced in May it voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which is a code referring to the reorganization of a business. For Rite Aid, this means it will close several of its locations while attempting to restructure its finances.

This is the second time in two years the company has filed for bankruptcy.  

Gary Zaboly, a Knolls Crescent resident since 1984, said, after the pandemic, the Rite Aid had issues stocking products due to frequent shoplifting. Since the store couldn’t pay its supplier for the stolen merchandise, the shelves became sparse. 

“I actually saw them,” Zaboly said. “Two guys came in with big, black garbage bags and filled them up with items … they brought the items to this black van that was waiting out there … these aren’t poor people who need food, these are guys who are stealing and selling it somewhere else to make a profit.” 

Rite Aid announced in a May press release it would implement a transition of its pharmacy assets to companies such as Walgreens, CVS and more. But the closest string of pharmacies is near 235th Street and Johnson Avenue — a five-to-10-minute drive via car or bus, but nearly a 20-minute trek on foot from Knolls Crescent.

For elderly residents or those with mobility issues, commuting from their home to a further pharmacy is taxing. Nearly 30 percent of the Riverdale-Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood is above the age of 65, according to a 2024 report from the New York Academy of Medicine. 

Online delivery is a viable option for many in the neighborhood, but some older residents are not comfortable with 

online services, while others may not even own a computer, said Stephanie Coggins, a resident who wrote an op-ed to The Press in June about the Knolls Crescent Rite Aid.  

“These are not small things,” Coggins said. “It really is very difficult for older people.” 

Aside from practical concerns, customers are experiencing a deep loss of community. 

Miriam Westheimer, a Spuyten Duyvil resident of 30 years, said the Rite Aid staff knew customers by name, and the two primary pharmacists were extraordinary. 

“You wouldn’t know that it’s a big chain pharmacy,” Westheimer said, “It feels like a community, family-owned pharmacy … they’re really above and beyond.” 

The Press received several comments from the community about the Rite Aid. One resident described the location as family, and another said the pharmacists are the best caretakers.

“They’ve been a great service to the community,” Ray Wrublewski, who lives across the street from the Rite Aid, said. “We’re gonna miss them.”

The strip of stores on Knolls Crescent was purchased by Friedland Properties in 2008, reported by The Press at the time as “the only commercial strip of its kind” in Spuyten Duyvil.

A JPMorgan Chase Bank, a dry cleaner and a cafe on the strip have all closed in recent years.

“We’ve kind of been treated like the stepsister of [Riverdale], and we only have this one retail strip that has been through hell,” Coggins said. “But the two things that people really depend on are Ben’s Market … and Rite Aid.”

Elsewhere, in Kingsbridge, the Rite Aid at 238th Street and Broadway closed in December 2023. A sign advertising a new Superfresh store has been displayed at the site for some time. But based on graffitied walls, overgrown plants in the parking lot and signs of homelessness outside, residents say there is no clear indication the store will open soon.

It is unclear whether employees from the Knolls Crescent Rite Aid will be transferred, as staff were not permitted to speak to The Press and Rite Aid corporate did not respond to a request for comment at press time.

Coggins said she is organizing a thank-you gift for the employees at the Rite Aid. She has collected donations from fellow customers and plans to deliver a large, community-signed card and cash to the store in the coming days, giving residents a chance to say goodbye.

“The loss of Knolls Crescent is more than just that of access to pills and products,” Coggins wrote in her letter to The Press, “it is a loss of friends, it is a loss of neighbors.”