Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Rainiest two weeks I ever saw at the beach.

I see that here.. Gosh. Guess I should have looked in earlier!

Assuming the next hour goes well...

4730 Forest Drive:

6118 Saint Andrews Road

7900 Garners Ferry Road:

Commenter Mr. BO sends the pictures of the Garners Ferry Rite Aid, saying

I remember when this place was Rosewood Furniture which was raised to make an Eckerds, then I think it was a CVS for a short while before becoming a Rite-Aid. Now Wallgreens purchased the place. With a Wallgreens just a block away, I sort of fear for this store's future. They're not in the system yet so I can't do my prescriptions from Rite-aid's web site and the transfer function only lets you select the store across Garner's ferry from Hazelwood.

I had noticed similar signs on the Forest Acres and Irmo Rite Aid stores: This Rite Aid now has a Walgreens Pharmacy, which is rather like going to Sears and seeing a sign saying This Sears is now stocked by J C Penny.

Looking at google, and Wikipedia, what seems to have been going on is that Walgreens tried to buy the whole of Rite Aid, but the merger was not approved for anti-trust reasons, and Walgreens ended up with only about 2000 Rite Aid locations. Now, the rump Rite Aid chain is in negotiations with the Albertson grocery chain to merge with it.

What actually happens to the stores that Walgreens got is unclear. I would expect many of them to eventually be reflagged, but some of them are really too close to existing Walgreens locations, and those will probably be closed. How close is "too close"? We'll know when it happens, I suppose.

UPDATE 25 September 2018 -- As mentioned by several commenters, the Saint Andrews Road store is now officially a Walgreens:

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss
-- Robert Heinlein

Enjoy it while you can: