Another Rite Aid, Wrong Town story. Rite Aid already has a drugstore in this town, but they want to build a new store in their traditional corner lot mode. To do so requires bulldozing nearly half a block of existing property, putting their building within 30 feet of residential Victorian homes. The properties they want to tear down are rentals, so the tenants have no say in the matter. Residents tried to get the City Council to write to Rite Aid in opposition to the project, but one Councilman refused to sign the letter. In nearby Hilliard, OH, Rite Aid apparently fought citizens to locate there, built their store, faced a local boycott, and closed their store within less than a year. In Upper Sandusky, the developer is now trying to influence the tenants, many of whom are elderly, to move out, or face eviction. Citizens say they have send petitions and 100 letters to Rite Aid, to no effect. The new Rite Aid prototype is a one story, 11,000 s.f. buildling, often with a drive through window for harried women on the run who want their prescriptions in such a hurry they don’t have time to get out of their car to buy them. Definitely not the “Rite” store for a Victorian residential neighborhood.
Contact Scott Ekleberry at the email address above for further information.
