Giant Eagle gives opening dates for standalone pharmacies in Mt. Washington, Sewickley

A former Rite Aid in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood will reopen Thursday morning as a standalone Giant Eagle Pharmacy.

Much like the Rite Aid before it, the store at 211 Virginia Ave. will fill prescriptions and sell an assortment of health, beauty and wellness products.

Where it will differ is the food selection, which is set to include fresh produce in addition to the prepackaged foods often carried by Rite Aid.

“We understood that the closure of the Mt. Washington Rite Aid created a need for access to convenient care in Mt. Washington, and we are happy to show up for the community to close that gap,” Giant Eagle President and CEO Bill Artman said in a statement.

Another former Rite Aid, at 517 Beaver St. in Sewickley, will reopen under the Giant Eagle name Nov. 13.

For Giant Eagle, the openings will be a huge mark of progress in leveraging recently purchased Rite Aid assets.

The Cranberry-based grocer, on a mission to make pharmacies just as big a part of its identity, bought 78 stores worth of prescription files from the bankrupt drugstore chain in May. Rite Aid shuttered its remaining stores earlier this month.

Giant Eagle has or will hire about 250 former Rite Aid workers, company leadership previously said, to meet the surge in customers.

The Rite Aid purchase brought an additional 6 million prescriptions into Giant Eagle’s system, initially generating long lines and frustrated customers.

The Mt. Washington and Sewickley stores were also included in the sale of prescription files.

Giant Eagle has only six other standalone pharmacies, including one in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood that will close shortly after the Nov. 6 opening of a Market District at the intersection of Shady and Penn avenues.

Despite the struggles of some drugstores, Artman told TribLive in September he’s confident in the profitability of these locations.