Giant Eagle to open pharmacies at former Rite Aid stores in Mt. Washington, Sewickley

Giant Eagle will open standalone pharmacies at former Rite Aid locations in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood and Sewickley, the company confirmed to TribLive on Monday.

These will be similar to traditional drugstores, according to the Cranberry-based grocery chain, with a pharmacy counter as well as a wide selection of health and beauty items.

The Sewickley site is located at 517 Beaver St.

In Mt. Washington, Giant Eagle is taking over the Rite Aid at 211 Virginia Ave.

The company did not provide opening dates.

Rite Aid has been closing stores and auctioning assets since it filed for bankruptcy protection in May. It will soon go out of business completely.

Giant Eagle bought prescription files from 78 stores later that month along with the two Rite Aid properties. At the time, it did not disclose which stores it purchased.

The company said it has hired or will hire about 250 former Rite Aid workers as the ailing drugstore chain winds down operations.

Giant Eagle has only six other standalone pharmacies (the one in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood will close once a nearby Market District opens later this year). But the success of these drugstores, including ones recently opened in Hollidaysburg, Blair County, and Cambridge, Ohio, has encouraged Giant Eagle to add more pharmacies separate from its grocery stores, said Jannah Drexler, a company spokeswoman.

“We are in the process of exploring additional former Rite Aid locations throughout the region, but we are unable to comment on specific sites until we formally close on the properties,” she added.

Giant Eagle has doubled down on its prescription business as of late, not only by buying pieces of Rite Aid. In June, Giant Eagle sold its network of 270 GetGo convenience stores for $1.6 billion to help fund pharmacy investments.

But diving further into the standalone pharmacy model has puzzled some industry observers, given the struggles of Rite Aid and similar businesses. Drugstores bear the same costs — and often losses — from filling prescriptions as grocery stores, without the same selection of merchandise to make up for them.

Giant Eagle CEO Bill Artman previously told TribLive he’s confident his company’s “excellent group of team members” and myPerks loyalty program will nonetheless fuel success.