Brooks

[vwnut13]

In St. Johnsbury, Vermont...

Rite-Aid moved from their large freestanding location to the old Brooks location (formerly Butson's Supermarket). 

Kinney Drugs moved into the old Rite Aid location.

This sounds like it might have been one of the locations that they were required to sell off one of the stores as part of the merger (particularly if they left a freestanding store for a former supermarket - though that may be a freestanding building also?).

The old Rite Aid and the New Rite Aid are pretty much the exact same size (the size of your average freestanding drugstore).  The new location, the one that used to be a supermarket, is pretty much freestanding.  There is a gas station built right up to the back side of it, with no space in between.


The new location however, is right in downtown.  Their old location was just outside the village limits (but still in town).  I'm sure they figured that the downtown location was better than the nicer building.

[Stork of The Weak]

Were Brooks stores usually a little bit bigger than most other drugstores at the time?

[BillyGr]

Were Brooks stores usually a little bit bigger than most other drugstores at the time?

I can't say for sure overall, but the ones I have seen tended to actually be smaller than most.  Up through the Rite Aid merger, I can only think of one store (the one in North Adams, MA) that had been rebuilt as a "modern" freestanding drive-thru store.

The others I know of were an odd combination - Williamstown MA is what looks like a Centennial A&P, Adams is a freestanding older building,  Pittsfield East is in a strip plaza, Pittsfield downtown a building with small parking lot, same for Pittsfield South (those two are less than a mile apart I'd think), Bennington VT a freestanding building modified from something with a small space subdivided that had been a video store and the Brooks had a back entry by the pharmacy as well as a front one, Lee is in a mini plaza (probably was something else divided at some point), Great Barrington one in downtown building and had one in the Big Y strip plaza, CT Cannan is a small freestanding (I think) building. 
As far as I know, none of these older stores have drive thru (though some could add it) and also (as far as I know, but I haven't been near any of these in a year or so) none had been replaced or closed (except the Great Barrington plaza one noted). 
I would say all of these were no larger than any of the Rite Aid or CVS in-strip plaza stores (a couple may be a bit smaller) but just hung around somewhat longer than most of the similar sized stores of other chains.

[Bdubs]

The former Brooks in East Hampton, CT is now a Rite Aid. The plaza is still called Brooks Plaza though, oddly enough.

[JSIDA17]

Once upon a time, in Putnam, CT, there was two Brooks stores operating within a quarter mile radius of each other.

[TRJ_22487]

Cleaning out my Grandmas storage locker and came across this Brooks Pharmacy bag! Brought back memories of an ex girlfriend that worked at the Milford, NH location