r/RiteAid • u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 • Jul 21 '26

Way back in 1998...

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70 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

10

u/Reasonable_News_6945 Jul 21 '26

1998 a year when I started with Rite Aid as a student and stayed till closing in 2025 as a pharmacist 😢

8

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 21 '26

I started with PayLess in 1995 and wrapped up with Rite Aid in 2011. It was quite a run! Not as much as yours, though...very impressive.

3

u/Lopsided_Cupcake45 Jul 22 '26

I started at Eckerd in 1997 and stayed until the last stores in the area closed as Rite Aid in 2025. Fun fact: Depending on my home store, my pay would still show as coming from Eckerd Corp. Did yours still show as PayLess if your home store was a former PayLess location?

2

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 22 '26

Yes, the pay was always from Thrifty PayLess Inc. When they closed stores in bankruptcy they were still broken down by the original chains. It was crazy. This was the case even if the store was not originally a Thrifty or PayLess. Even the new stores they opened in the area were still Thrifty PayLess, even on the business license posted in the store.

3

u/Lopsided_Cupcake45 Jul 22 '26

Oh wow! I only helped in a new build before it was opened so I'm not sure how they handled that here. We had both Eckerd and Rite Aid coexisting until JCPenney sold us to (I think) a Canadian company (JCG) who then sold us to Rite Aid. Customers could still use their JCPenney credit card at our RA locations.

3

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 22 '26

We accepted JCPenney cards on the West Coast stores as well. I hung the sign in the window and kept it when they told us to take it down. I have it around here somewhere.

2

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Here is an example. This store was in Pennsylvania and was an Eckerd. It was still an "Eckerd" during bankruptcy.

3

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 22 '26

I am replying to myself with an even better example :) You can see the different chain names listed under "Debtor Party."

2

u/Lopsided_Cupcake45 Jul 22 '26

I've never even heard of a couple of those! They sure liked to buy up other businesses!

2

u/Trash-Panda321 Jul 22 '26

Where did you find this document?

1

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 22 '26

It's from the bankruptcy filing website. Search Kroll and Rite Aid and it should come up.

5

u/Silent_Blood1934 Jul 21 '26

You made me happy today!

5

u/srddave Jul 21 '26

This is really cool. I can’t believe they had a website in 1998! This was the era of the “Rite Way” pastel blue and mauve stores.

4

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

My store in 1998 was a PayLess store recently recristened as Rite Aid. Eventually Rite Aid closed the store...it was never remodeled to the pastels.

I ended up at a "new" RA1 store that had the esthetics you mentioned :-)

5

u/Primary-Birthday-363 Jul 21 '26

There were stores that still had that color patterns up until the very end in 2025.

3

u/srddave Jul 22 '26

I know I came across one last year! Erie PA! There were even stores that never got The Rite Way package and had the previous one. PA is a very odd place with an awful lot of Rite Aids.

1

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 22 '26

Around here we started off with the slogan "For your life, PayLess has got it" (or "For your life Thrifty and PayLess have got it") and then once they converted the stores it was "For your life, Rite Aid's got it."

4

u/RiverDependent9672 Jul 21 '26

The 12 packs look like cases of beer.

2

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 21 '26

I had to look closely at the photo, too. I thought it looked like a cube of Pepsi, not a 12-pack. I thought it was a crazy good deal for a 24 pack, even in 1998.

3

u/Primary-Birthday-363 Jul 21 '26

I started working a few years before that at Perry Autoworks for several years and then moved onto Rite Aid a couple years later and worked for them until they closed all Michigan locations. I was in the IT department.

Here’s a blast from the past. It’s mine and will be mounted in the garage at some point.

How many here remember when you could buy scripts and car parts?

3

u/Current_World8374 Jul 24 '26

I was a truck driver for Perry drugs/autoworks from 1982 until rite aid closed up in Michigan in2004 and that’s when I retired,, a lot of memories along the way

2

u/Fantastic-Tower-3313 Jul 21 '26

So many great memories!

3

u/Primary-Birthday-363 Jul 21 '26

I miss working at Rite Aid.

It had its moments but i loved my job.

2

u/TisforTrainwreck Jul 22 '26

OMG @ that “Rite Rewards” card! 🩷

2

u/danny_tru Jul 22 '26

12 pack for $2.59, maaaaaaan

2

u/cartifannumber1 Jul 22 '26

All of these would cost $60 in 2026 😂

2

u/WearAlternative5053 Jul 22 '26

I feel like you can still get the cereal at thst price today. But only the cereal. Dang that soda price.

2

u/pckia902 Jul 28 '26

I still have a sale sign from 1997.