Midtown Rite-Aid on Woodward Closing

Just received a letter from Rite-Aid that their Woodward store is closing. The pharmacy will shut down March 25th and to move your prescriptions before then. The rest of the store is completely shutting down April 21st.

Sad, I use the Amazon lockers there every week. I know many apartment dwellers in Midtown do also.

The manager told me that because of corporate financial difficulties and that the theft is just out of control, which I could imagine, closing the Woodward store was an easy one. I doubt it will be the last to close in Detroit.

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Originally Posted by casscorridor65

Just received a letter from Rite-Aid that their Woodward store is closing. The pharmacy will shut down March 25th and to move your prescriptions before then. The rest of the store is completely shutting down April 21st.

Sad, I use the Amazon lockers there every week. I know many apartment dwellers in Midtown do also.

The manager told me that the theft is just out of control, which I could imagine. I doubt it will be the last to close in Detroit.

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I would point out that Rite-Aid went bankrupt and is closing stores all over the place. They shut down hundreds last year and are planning to shut down more this year. Of course if theft is high at a particular store, that certainly an additional possible reason to close it.

Apparently their AI facial recognition technology didn't help.

Rite Aid Banned from Using AI Facial Recognition After FTC Says Retailer Deployed Technology without Reasonable Safeguards

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Rite Aid will be prohibited from using facial recognition technology for surveillance purposes for five years to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the retailer failed to implement reasonable procedures and prevent harm to consumers in its use of facial recognition technology in hundreds of stores.

“Rite Aid's reckless use of facial surveillance systems left its customers facing humiliation and other harms, and its order violations put consumers’ sensitive information at risk," said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Today’s groundbreaking order makes clear that the Commission will be vigilant in protecting the public from unfair biometric surveillance and unfair data security practices.”...

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Subvert the cybernetic overlords!

Yep! Justified theft is certainly OUT OF CONTROL in areas of Cali [where you can steal up to $900 - no charges pressed]. Once well-heeled clusters of high end stores have been shuttered. Even a Whole Foods had to close shop. Chicago has lost dozens of Rite Aids, and other stores, back to back. Even some Walmarts and other large grocers are closing leaving food deserts. Residence must go further away for basic necessities...

The stolen goods turn up on eBay, and Facebook Marketplace. And often we're not talking about food for the hungry! Course the rationale for the thieves is 'they got insurance...' and policing is minimal. What store security guard is stepping forward getting shot dead for their efforts?

I was thankful that initially we [Detroit] did not succumb to this as much as Cali, NYC etc. But I guess it has finally arriving at our doors. As civility continues to erode - onward. The CVS on West Grand Blvd closed too about six months ago. Seniors in that area lost that option.

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Originally Posted by casscorridor65

The manager told me that because of corporate financial difficulties and that the theft is just out of control, which I could imagine...

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The Rite-Aid here at 10 Mile & Harper in St. Clair Shores closed already last year. Ours was 1/2 mile from a Walgeens and 1 mile from a CVS.

I just left Mack and Alter to note that the Rite Aid on that mall has closed. It was fairly new. Now gone... :[ ...

Good point. Sad but true.

In the old days the cashiers/other employees would confront shoplifters but that is not allowed anymore, which is understandable. I asked the manager what happened to the security guard that they have periodically had on and off again; he stated the theft was so great the guard couldn't keep up. It was pointless because the costs from having security were not even close to offsetting the amount being stolen. He said they also could never keep up with the begging 10 feet from the front door, which was a nonstop complaint from the customers. I had to laugh at how true that comment was! I don't think EVER went there without being asked for money at the entrance. LOL...

Starbucks closed. Rite Aid closed. Who's next? Sad.

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Originally Posted by Zacha341

Yep! Justified theft is certainly OUT OF CONTROL in areas of Cali [where you can steal up to $900 - no charges pressed]. Once well-heeled clusters of high end stores have been shuttered. Even a Whole Foods had to close shop. Chicago has lost dozens of Rite Aids, and other stores, back to back. Even some Walmarts and other large grocers are closing leaving food deserts. Residence must go further away for basic necessities...

The stolen goods turn up on eBay, and Facebook Marketplace. And often we're not talking about food for the hungry! Course the rationale for the thieves is 'they got insurance...' and policing is minimal. What store security guard is stepping forward getting shot dead for their efforts?

I was thankful that initially we [Detroit] did not succumb to this as much as Cali, NYC etc. But I guess it has finally arriving at our doors. As civility continues to erode - onward. The CVS on West Grand Blvd closed too about six months ago. Seniors in that area lost that option.

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Originally Posted by Jimaz

Apparently their AI facial recognition technology didn't help.

Rite Aid Banned from Using AI Facial Recognition After FTC Says Retailer Deployed Technology without Reasonable Safeguards



Subvert the cybernetic overlords!

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They just pulled vending machines from a university here that was doing the same thing,buy a soda and the hidden camera profiles you and stores the information.

They say it is localized and not shared,but those machines are connected to the internet because they notify the owners when they need refilling over the internet.

It says Rite - Aid But a Majority are owned by Walgreens,which is also closing 400 locations out of 9000.

I think all of that is more of a fallout of 10 years ago there was a big pharmacy push where when you came to a corner and on every 4 corners was a major brand pharmacy.

To me it’s like anything else,when the economy is rolling these major brands open locations as many as they can as fast as they can in order to capture market share,then when it levels out they start dumping locations.

Theft has a lot to do with it and it an issue but alot of this is corporate correction after a decade of everybody buying everybody else out and market saturation.

My local hospital sells meds at cost to anybody walking in off the street,so where my meds would be $1200 at CVS Or Rite-aid I pay $86.

There was 2 companies online that sells meds at cost,and Mark Cuban was going to start a 3rd.

Their revenue is based on insurance,I got antibiotics at K-Mart cash it was $17 - if I had insurance they would have billed $360,lots more are going to shutter as the government is going through a review process.

An annoying trend in grocery stores is the multiple item so-called discounts. 2 for 3.00 but 1 item is 1.99. They do the same with 3 or 4 items. Sometimes you only see the multiple item price so don't know how much a single item costs. We have one chain left in Canada, Food Basics, where any time there's a 2 item price the single will always be half.

^ I noticed this scam discount increasingly at Kroger! Sometimes I go for it but I REALLY don't need TWO bags of potato chips in the house!

I've noticed a couple of Chaldean stores allow true half-off of the item w/o need to buy two or three. Or maybe the cashier just liked me...:p...

Over a dozen years ago the National Trust for Historic Preservation put "the corner of Main and Main" on their 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list, because the big 3 drug stores... CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreens were buying up the most prominent site in small towns across America [usually that had the nicest historic buildings], and they were tearing them down to put up their cookie cutter drug stores.

They big 3 were destroying important commercial buildings across America. Finally the Historic Preservation group had a pow-wow with the big 3, and they agreed to stop doing that... but not before quite a few beautiful historic commercial buildings were razed for a drug store set back from the street, with parking in front of the building... destroying part of the historic street walls in small towns and cities across America.

Here in St. Clair Shores Walgreens wanted to tear down a 2 story historic building [today called Butter Run Restaurant] and build a Walgreen right across the street from a CVS on the other side of 11 Mile Rd. The city fought them tooth and nail until they finally relented and built their Walgreen a mile north at 12 Mile & Harper. Now Butter Run Restaurant was saved and restored... has all the charm of an English pub on the inside. :)

^ This reminds me of how the main business intersection in Melvindale with a CVS and a Rite Aid across Allen Road from one another. Of course, both ended up shutting down in recent years.

Outside of those two, both CVS and Rite Aid have been trimming their Downriver store counts lately, such that Taylor has now lost all of their Rite Aids, the only CVS left in Taylor is the Target pharmacy, Meijer/Target/Walmart pharmacies are literally the only pharmacies left within Woodhaven's borders, multiple CVS stores have closed in the Wyandotte/Southgate/Lincoln Park area, and a while back I noticed even the CVS at Warren/Evergreen had gone out of business.

Wow, I knew theft was bad, I didn't know it was that bad!

5th metro Detroit drugstore closes and customers think they know why [[freep.com)

I'm so sad that our community become the real losers. We need these businesses!

I imagine selling smokes would have contributed a lot to drug store profits and helped off-set the losses to theft. The theft problem is happening everywhere but obviously is worse in inner cities. Here in the Toronto burbs we've had no problem with drugstores but lots of problems with people walking out of liquor stores, which are owned by the Ontario gov't. There was a plan to i.d. everyone before they entered the store but that was squashed as the union employees feared the problems having to deal with irate old men.

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Originally Posted by casscorridor65

Wow, I knew theft was bad, I didn't know it was that bad!

5th metro Detroit drugstore closes and customers think they know why [[freep.com)

I'm so sad that our community become the real losers. We need these businesses!

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They also didn't provide any proof that theft was worse than before and the landlord said their profits were up and they offered them a deal to stay. Sounds a lot more like bad management and understaffing had much more to do with it than any supposed rise in theft.

Read it again. SALES were up. That doesn't necessarily mean PROFITS were up.

As far as providing "proof" about theft; they don't have to. Closing the store kinda says it all.

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Originally Posted by JonWylie

They also didn't provide any proof that theft was worse than before and the landlord said their profits were up .....

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Originally Posted by casscorridor65

Read it again. SALES were up. That doesn't necessarily mean PROFITS were up.

As far as providing "proof" about theft; they don't have to. Closing the store kinda says it all.

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Yeah, not really. When you claim crime is up so much you need to close, you should probably back that up with something, especially after being in the same spot for 20 years. Rite Aid is a horribly mismanaged, as evident by their bankruptcy and massive closures around the County. It's pretty convenient that crime is all of a sudden, the cause of them closing, not their bankruptcy and massive lawsuits.

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Originally Posted by JonWylie

Rite Aid is a horribly mismanaged, as evident by their bankruptcy and massive closures around the County.

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That argument cuts both ways. Part of the mismanagement could have been keeping open unprofitable stores. Now they are fixing that.

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Originally Posted by JBMcB

That argument cuts both ways. Part of the mismanagement could have been keeping open unprofitable stores. Now they are fixing that.

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Certainly, but a huge part of their mismanagement is their exposure to lawsuits as well. It's irritating that the article seems to paint it as a completely one-sided issue of theft but doesn't mention the myriad of poor business on part of Rite Aid.

I'm just saying, if you're closing a store and citing crime, you would think the numbers would be pretty black and white. I guess the craziest part is Rite Aid didn't even say this, it's just random people on the street and unnamed workers, seems pretty lazy to ride that narrative through the whole article. Not surprised its Reindl writing this.

Then there is the elephant in the room with the opioid settlement fall out,the government has collected over $50 billion so far and Rite-Aid still has like 1500 pending lawsuits.

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Originally Posted by JonWylie

...Not surprised its Reindl writing this.

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In describing his profession, Samuel Johnson said “A news-writer is a man without virtue who writes lies at home for his own profit. To these compositions is required neither genius nor knowledge, neither industry nor sprightliness, but contempt of shame and indifference to truth are absolutely necessary.”

Grub Street [[engole.info)

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Originally Posted by Henry Whalley

In describing his profession, Samuel Johnson said “A news-writer is a man without virtue who writes lies at home for his own profit. To these compositions is required neither genius nor knowledge, neither industry nor sprightliness, but contempt of shame and indifference to truth are absolutely necessary.”

Grub Street [[engole.info)

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I just don’t agree with a lot of his personal stuff on social media, so I tend to think we have a different view of the world. Not going to crucify the whole profession.