EDITORIAL: Loss of Rite Aid a massive blow to already critically underserved community
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Signs are posted outside the Mahanoy City Rite Aid on May 16, 2025.
SHENANDOAH – Shenandoah doesn’t have a staffed doctor’s office, medical facility, or urgent care and, soon, we’ll be without a full pharmacy within walking distance to most.
Rite Aid filed Friday to close their locations in Shenandoah and Frackville, closely following the Mahanoy City location.
All locations will eventually close or be bought out. If no chain decides to enter the northern Schuylkill market to fill the void, we’ll be left with just Redner’s up in Turkey Run and Morris Drug for the folks in Mahanoy City.
If the worst case scenario happens and Shenandoah’s Rite Aid is vacated in the next month or so, downtown will be in a strange situation. Until construction started on DSI’s Center for Education, Business, and the Arts, Rite Aid was the newest commercial building downtown. In fact, Rite Aid may have claim to the two newest commercial buildings downtown. They built what is now One Stop in the early 1990’s and moved to new digs down the block around 2000.
Even more concerning are the impacts to healthcare access.
Aside from their helicopters landing here every so often, the major health networks have no presence in Shenandoah. They all tout a commitment to care close to home, but may as well add an “except for Shenandoah” to their statements. It isn’t for lack of knowledge or funds. For example, Geisinger, embarking on a major expansion to their main campus and building a new cancer center in the Lewisburg area, acknowledged in a report a few years ago that Shenandoah and Mahanoy City have among the highest health need in northeast Pennsylvania. Only Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton eclipse us.
The federally-funded Shenandoah Health Center, owned by Primary Health Network, lists no care providers for the Shenandoah location on their website.
Breakthrough Health, an addiction-focused outfit at Main and Centre in the old Bolich And Burke building, moved to virtual only visits on May 1. The signs are already down.
Shenandoah has nothing else. For the many in town without reliable transportation, the options in neighboring towns aren’t accessible. Take the bus to urgent care in Saint Clair or Pottsville? What about a weekend?
This is a situation Shenandoah should not be in, and there likely is no homegrown solution.
Losing Rite Aid is beyond any control. The company was put in an untenable position and can’t continue.
But, Rite Aid shouldn’t be the only stable healthcare option in a town the size of Shenandoah.
One can hope the store is bought by CVS or repurposed by one of the major health networks, but, sad to say, I’m not holding my breath.
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