Patients scramble as Rite Aid in Center City prepares to close for good

Patients like Michelle Mercado are frantically figuring out what to do before the doors of her neighborhood pharmacy close next Thursday.

"I was getting my medicine there. I had to switch to another pharmacy," she said.

Empty shelves now line the Rite Aid store located at 16th and Chestnut streets in Center City as the pharmacy prepares to close for good.

This is the latest location that the third largest U.S. drugstore chain is shutting down after filing for bankruptcy more than three months ago.

Rite Aid, which is headquartered in Philadelphia, told NBC10 that it "regularly assesses its retail footprint" and that it has decided to close "certain underperforming stores."

The company is not confirming if any other additional stores are expected to close.

While Mercado found a solution, independent pharmacy owners fear that won't be the case for all patients, especially those living in so-called "pharmacy deserts."

"That's, unfortunately, one of the dangers that's happening right now with a lot of pharmacies closing down is, say there's an emergency or, say, a mail order can't get you your prescription on time," president of the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists (PARD) Dr. Mak Amin said.

Dr. Amin opened Skippack Pharmacy in Montgomery County five years ago after seeing the desperate need.

"I saw the grief in my patients, in my community and I decided you know what? I'm going to stick up for the little guys," Amin told NBC10.

But, running a pharmacy business has not been easy and it doesn't come without loss.

Every time Amin's store fills a prescription, he says he goes into the red.

He says the problem lies in the way the industry is currently structured and how insurance reimbursements aren't enough for smaller pharmacies to cover costs.

"The entire landscape of pharmacy could collapse if change doesn't happen," he explained. "We'll keep fighting, because at the end of the day for our patients, we'll do anything. We're fighting for the patient, not for the dollar. And unfortunately, a lot of these, the pharmacies will close, and the Rite Aid closing is just the brink of the beginning of what the news media is starting to see of pharmacies closing."