Eckerd

[GothicPrincess]

Greensburg, PA we have 2 Eckerd Drug Stores here in town. Their name badges say Rite Aid, their signs say Eckerd. I used to work for the one on Route 30 Greengate Plaza, but I got fired for medical reasons. How do you like that one? I still have friends that work there, one girl was the photo lab technician and when they removed the lab and changed to Rite Aid, she decided to become defiant and wear her Photo Lab Technician name badge instead of Customer Service. Their shirts were changed from Eckerd blue to Rite Aid red. Some of the store was changed around a little, but not very much, and that could have been before the Rite Aid changeover. The store seemed darker inside though, as if the lighting had been changed. Next time I'm up there, probably tomorrow or the next day, I'll snake some pics for you. Will try to get to the one on the other side of town as well. By the way, both stores are freestanding.

[GothicPrincess]

I looked at Wikipedia today and found that Eckerd is now listed on there as a Defunct Pharmacy Chain. It's kind of sad in a way...I guess considering I used to work there...I'm working on getting pictures of the 2 Eckerd's in my town for you before they officially put up a Rite Aid sign. Blech...

[videogamer75]

This is the former eckerd in Egg Harbor City NJ. By the way, this topic should be moved to the Closed Chains board....

[Mobil]

Former A&P, Fay's, and Eckerd in Jim Thorpe, PA. This A&P closed in 1993, not 1982 like the ones in the Philadelphia area.

[Mervyns]

They have many stores in the Philadelphia area from before the Thrift Drug takeover. Just look at the ones that were called "Eckerd Drugs" in the 60's or the drive thru stores from the early 90's. Most of the acquired stores got remodeled too.

[Mervyns]

Originally posted by videogamer75
This is the former eckerd in Egg Harbor City NJ. By the way, this topic should be moved to the Closed Chains board....

Was this a newer one?

[videogamer75]

No, that was actually an old main-street building built YEARS ago. Eckerd just happened to occupy it.

[Mervyns]

Originally posted by videogamer75
No, that was actually an old main-street building built YEARS ago. Eckerd just happened to occupy it.  

Do you know if the clock was newer? Or the Eckerd?

[videogamer75]

I think the clock is newer then the Eckerd.

[EddieJ1984]

I looked and didn't see an Eckerd topic (strange I coulda sworn there was one lol)
So here is a picture of a closed eckerd near me that was in the Mayfair Shopping Center. There is a rite aid about a block away so it made sense that they were gonna close this one.
took these 2 pics today

[Marc82]

I looked and didn't see an Eckerd topic (strange I coulda sworn there was one lol)

There probably was, but a lot of thread titles got messed up when they moved the message board to the new server. They fixed some of them, but it takes a lot of man power to catch them all.

[EddieJ1984]

Yeah I was thinking that also, browsing the topics I couldn't find what it may have been.
So until then I guess this is good, and if its found I guess the post could be moved to it.

[BillyGr]

I don't see one either but am sure there would have been one (I probably posted photos of some of our local stores) - I even checked the "Stores" category, thinking it might have been there had it been started BEFORE they closed down, but still nothing that looked like it.

I found a few others that needed title changes and noted those, though (and changed a couple where I happened to have been the first poster and could edit the subject)

[Kmart4life]

All of our Eckerd's are CVS.

[EddieJ1984]

The eckerd I posted pics of above, is becoming an Aaron's.

[JimSawhill]

The eckerd I posted pics of above, is becoming an Aaron's.

The Eckerd near me became an ADVANCED AUTO PARTS...

[buzz86us]

all of my Eckerds are now Rite Aids and for some reason we have several instances where rite aid is right across from each other.

[BillyGr]

all of my Eckerds are now Rite Aids and for some reason we have several instances where rite aid is right across from each other.

Surprising that there are still some like that - around here many of the duplicates were closed just after Rite Aid took over (particularly where the Eckerd was an older store).  They did keep both locations for a while in a couple spots, but they have since closed one of them (even the existing Rite Aid where the Eckerd was a newer building).

They do still have additional stores, but mainly where they were not too close (example - on Rt 9/20 in Rensselaer/East Greenbush/Schodack - they kept the existing Rite Aid in Schodack and East Greenbush, closed the Eckerd in East Greenbush (diagonal across from the Rite Aid and in an old grocery building, no drive thru) and kept the Eckerd in Rensselaer (newer freestanding w/drive thru) so they now have 3 stores rather than 2, but spaced out over the corridor.

Of course, we could also point out that Rite Aid had a store in Rensselaer they closed quite some time ago (which later became the Eckerd before they moved to the newer store) - and one near the former Ames in East Greenbush as well that closed then a few years later they opened the existing one farther up.

[bubcolbert1952]

An Eckerd near me (in 2007 it became a Rite Aid which closed less than a month ago) was a former WT Grant dime store that began its drugstore life as a Thrift Drug, owned by JCPenney. What's really weird is that Eckerd never replaced all the light fixtures at this store even though they did at almost all the other Thrift Drugs they bought, and this particular store had lighting that looked almost exactly the same as the lighting used at a lot of Kmart stores that used to be Grant City stores (the sister chain of WT Grant). But I'm pretty sure neither Kmart nor Thrift Drug would have kept the original Grants lighting because most Grants stores of both formats were already pretty old and outdated by the time the chain went out of business, and that was way back in 1976.

Here's another strange coincidence: I know of only one other Thrift Drug/Eckerd/Rite Aid that never had its original lighting redone by Eckerd (but the lighting here isn't the same as at the store that was a WT Grant either), and a section of this store on the right side has a much lower ceiling than the rest of the store because Thrift Drug expanded the store into what used to be a flower shop... and here's what's really weird: lots of the Kmart stores that started as Grant City reused the Grant City snack bars, which often had the exact same ceiling height as the expanded section of the Thrift Drug, even though this Thrift Drug never was a Grants...