Boise area’s last few Rite Aids may be gone soon. This is their likely fate
Rite Aid plans to sell an undisclosed number of its remaining stores in Idaho to another pharmacy operator, according to a news release.
The drugstore chain has just three stores left in the Treasure Valley: two on State Street in Boise and one in Caldwell, according to its store locator. The stores will remain open during the transition, the announcement said.
“Customers can continue to access their pharmacy services, including prescription refills and immunizations, without interruption,” the news release said.
The company has closed several “underperforming” stores in the Boise area in the last few years since it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2023.
Its last three stores in the Treasure Valley, at 1515 W. State Street in Boise, 7020 W. State Street in Boise and 2107 Blaine Street in Caldwell, might be sold to CVS Pharmacy.
%20Pharmacy%20Covid%20test.jpg "0115 (02) Pharmacy Covid test.jpg")
Rite Aid said Thursday that it had entered into a series of sale and pharmacy services transition agreements for over 1,000 stores across the country. The buyers include CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Albertsons and Kroger, among others. The company said many of its stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington would go to CVS Pharmacy.
A spokesperson for the company declined to answer a question Friday about whether its Idaho stores would indeed go to CVS.
“These agreements ensure our pharmacy customers will experience a smooth transition while preserving jobs for some of our valued team members,” Rite Aid CEO Matt Schroeder said in the announcement.
The sales are pending approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, where a hearing is scheduled Wednesday, and from federal regulators.
Rite Aid cites declining sales
Rite Aid had planned to merge with Albertsons, the Boise grocery giant, in 2017, but the deal fell apart a year later as the drugstore chain struggled with competition from larger competitors such as CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens.
In 2021, the company remodeled its flagship Boise store at the corner of 15th and State streets, which was built by Safeway in 1950 with a Marina-style rounded roof. That store remains open. The company also remodeled its stores on Boise Avenue and in Meridian, which have since closed. Rite Aid spent about $500,000 on each remodel, the Statesman reported then.
CVS Pharmacy proposed in 2017 to build its own store across from Albertsons at 1625 W. State St., less than a block west of Rite Aid’s store. But CVS’s plans required demolishing a two-story apartment building that provided affordable housing, and the project fell through after residents of the surrounding neighborhood rallied against it.
When Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023, it cited declining sales and costs associated with more than a thousand lawsuits that claimed the company filled illegal prescriptions for opioids and other painkillers.
The chain now operates 1,240stores around the country, according to its website. About a year before the bankruptcy filing, it had 2,452 stores in the U.S., according to an Internet archive.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 12:56 PM.
CORRECTION: Rite Aid did not specify which, or how many, of its Idaho stores would be sold to CVS and which wouldn’t. An earlier version of this story incorrectly summarized part of Rite Aid’s statement about the sale.
