Rite Aid to close 9 stores in Southwestern Pa.

Rite Aid Corp., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, lost little time in announcing its plans to shutter nine stores in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Stores on the closing list are ones on Stevenson Boulevard in New Kensington; Route 22 in Murrysville; Route 30 in Hempfield; Library Road in Bethel Park; University Boulevard in Moon; Wilmington Road in New Castle; Brighton Avenue in Rochester; Saw Mill Run Boulevard in Pittsburgh; and Keeport Drive in Baldwin.

The local stores are among 39 in the state slated for closure. Rite Aid operates 433 stores in Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia-based Rite Aid had asked bankruptcy court for permission to reject the leases on about 347 of the chain’s 2,100 stores across the country. Rite Aid said it would be working with landlords of the stores on properties that it leases.

A&G Real Estate Partners of Melville, N.Y., said it will seek to sell the leases in the initial round of store closings, pending court approval. In Pennsylvania, it will market the leases on 12 stores, all of which have more than 10 years remaining under contract.

The Rite Aid store on Route 30 in Hempfield will close Oct. 30, with prescriptions transferred to the Giant Eagle supermarket at the Hempfield Square shopping center on Route 30. Although a sign on the front door said, “We’re Hiring,” employees Wednesday were busy clearing inventory from the shelves and placing the items in bins in preparation for the closing.

A spokesperson for Hempfield Retail Associates LLC of Springdale, the owner of the Rite Aid property in Hempfield, could not be reached for comment.

At the New Kensington Rite Aid, store employees said they knew their store would be closing but did not know when. A spokesperson for the property owner, 700 Stevenson L.P. of Calabasas, Calif., could not be reached for comment.

“It’s sad that it’s closing,” said Dee Remper of New Kensington, who moved to the city 10 years ago and lives nearby. “I do come here quite often.”

When the store does close, Remper and other shoppers said, they’d probably go to the Rite Aid in Lower Burrell. Another woman said she may consider taking her business to Town & Country, also in New Kensington.

Rite Aid has not said how many employees would be impacted by its store closings in Pennsylvania, and the state Department of Labor and Industry has not posted any layoff information from the company. An employer is required to provide advance notice of a mass layoff through the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act, but one of the exceptions is in case of “unforeseen business circumstances.”

The initial store closings may not be the last because bankruptcy court in Trenton, N.J., approved Rite Aid’s request on Tuesday to close more stores at an unspecified date.

A court hearing is scheduled Nov. 15 in Trenton to approve the store closings. The court also scheduled a hearing for Dec. 19 on the possible sale of Rite Aid’s retail assets.

For those stores that will be closed in the initial round, Rite Aid said it would work with customers to move their prescriptions to other nearby locations, if possible.