Which chain pharmacies are closing stores, and how many?
Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS have all been closing stores. Rite Aid has closed all of its stores, according to Drug Channels. Walgreens announced a plan to close about 1,200 stores over three years, about 500 of them in its 2025 fiscal year. CVS told reporters it planned to close about 270 stores in 2025.
Every one of those stores had patients who still need their medicine each month. They all have to fill it somewhere new.
Independent pharmacies are in position to take them. NCPA counted 18,988 independent pharmacies in 2026, about the same as the year before. That is nearly 37% of all retail pharmacies in the US. When a chain store near you closes, you are one of the stores still standing.
Do independent pharmacies actually gain patients when a chain store closes?
Independent pharmacies have gained patients when nearby stores closed. The average independent pharmacy filled fewer than 60,000 prescriptions in 2023 and almost 68,000 in 2024, according to NCPA. That is about 8,000 more prescriptions per store in a single year. NCPA pointed to nearby store closures as a likely reason.
In 2025, the average was about 66,000, according to NCPA's 2026 Digest. That is still far above 2023.
So the patients from closed chain stores are real, and many have already moved to independent pharmacies. To win the ones near you, it helps to know what happens to their prescriptions on the day their store closes.
What happens to a patient's prescriptions when a chain store closes?
A closing chain store usually sells its prescription files to another store. The patient's records move there, and the patient does not get to pick where. She can still move them again, to any independent pharmacy she wants.
In May 2025, Rite Aid said it would sell its customer prescription files to 13 buyers, including CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons and Kroger, Reuters reported. A bankruptcy judge approved the sales. He said the public interest in getting prescriptions transferred had to come first.
Researchers later traced where those files went. They studied 955 Rite Aid closures and published the results in JAMA Health Forum. At 96.4% of those stores, the files went to another chain pharmacy. About 1 in 3 stores sent its files to a location more than 2 miles away.
Fewer than 4 in 100 of those stores sent their files anywhere but another chain. The patients were assigned a new store. They were not asked. And the assignment is not final. When Rite Aid closed, TODAY told its customers they could move their prescriptions by contacting their new pharmacy directly. That new store can be yours.
Can an independent pharmacy buy a closing store's prescription files?
An independent pharmacy can buy a closing store's prescription files, but the closing store picks the buyer. When a big chain closes, the buyer is almost always another chain. When a smaller store closes, such as an owner who is retiring, you have a real chance if you ask early. A file sale, sometimes called a file buy, is a deal where one store pays for another store's prescription records. The patients' records move to the buyer, and those patients fill there unless they choose to move.
Each state sets the steps. In Louisiana, for example, a closing store must post a notice at its front door at least 10 days before it closes. The notice names the store that will get its files. The closing store must also tell the state board of pharmacy. Check your state board of pharmacy's rules for your state.
With a chain, the files are sold in bulk through corporate deals. In Rite Aid's case, a bankruptcy court approved them. So an owner down the street rarely gets a chance to bid. But not every store finds a buyer. At the May 2025 hearing, Rite Aid still had no buyer for the files at 200 of its stores, Reuters reported.
If a smaller store near you is closing, such as an owner who is retiring, you can ask the owner directly. In states with a rule like Louisiana's, the closing store names where its files go before the notice goes up. So ask before the sign is on the door.
Before you buy files, look at the insurance plans those patients carry. The JAMA Health Forum researchers wrote that independent pharmacies may hold back from taking transfers when reimbursement is low or uncertain. A file full of plans that pay below your cost adds work without adding profit. We cover how to spot those plans in How Can an Independent Pharmacy Stay Profitable When PBMs Pay Below Cost?
Which prescriptions can a new patient transfer to your independent pharmacy?
Most prescriptions with refills left can move to you with one call between your pharmacist and the other store's pharmacist. The patient does not need a new prescription for those refills. Controlled substances have federal limits, and your state sets the rest, so check your state board of pharmacy's rules.
Three federal rules matter most when chain patients start calling.
Schedule III, IV and V refills can transfer one time. Under 21 CFR 1306.25, the transfer is allowed "on a one-time basis only," unless both stores share a real-time online database. It must happen directly between two licensed pharmacists.
An unfilled electronic controlled prescription can move once. Since August 28, 2023, a DEA rule lets a patient ask to send an electronic Schedule II through V prescription that was never filled to another retail store, one time (21 CFR 1306.08(e)). Any refills on a Schedule III to V prescription go with it.
Schedule II prescriptions have no refills. Once a Schedule II prescription is filled, the patient needs a new one from the doctor for the next fill.
Here is what that means on the phone. Ask a new patient about controlled medicines on the first call. If it was already transferred once, she may need a new prescription from her doctor. Telling her that early saves her a wasted trip.
What does a switching patient need to hear when she calls?
She needs to hear that you can help her today. That means a real answer about how she will get her medicine, what you offer, and whether you will move her prescriptions for her. That conversation almost always starts on your phone, because moving a prescription starts with a call to the new store.
Picture her standing in her kitchen with three pill bottles from a store that just closed. She has a few days of blood pressure pills left. She calls the independent pharmacy closest to her house.
What she asks is predictable. In a sample of about 100,000 calls answered by the VOXO Pharmacy AI Agent between July 2025 and January 2026, about 12% of patient requests were about how to get their medicine, like pickup or delivery. About 4% were about the services an independent pharmacy offers. A patient picking a new store needs those same answers before she decides.
So the call is where you win her. If someone answers and offers to handle the transfer, she has a new store. If the phone rings out, she can call the next store on her list.
What should you do the week a chain store near you announces it is closing?
Find out where the files are going, tell patients they can still choose you, and make the transfer your job. Each step comes straight from how closures work.
Find out where the files are going. Read the closing notice on the door, or check the chain's transfer list. Rite Aid posted one that patients could search by ZIP code. If the files are going to a store farther from those patients than you are, you have a real reason for them to switch.
Tell patients they can still choose. Those patients were assigned a store. Put it plainly on a sign in your window and when they call: you can move your prescriptions here, and we will make the call for you.
Make the transfer your job. Ask for the medicine names, the prescription numbers and the old store's phone number, the same details TODAY told patients to bring. Then your pharmacist calls the other pharmacist. Ask about controlled medicines on that first call.
After the first fill, keeping that patient comes down to how easy refills are. We cover that in How Independents Are Capturing Refills They Used to Lose.
How does VOXO help an independent pharmacy answer every new patient's call?
The VOXO Pharmacy AI Agent answers every call, day or night, when your team is busy at the counter or the store is closed. It takes refill requests and puts them straight into your PMS. It answers routine questions, like your hours and how pickup and delivery work. Since we launched it, it has answered more than 1.7 million calls for independent pharmacies and submitted hundreds of thousands of refill requests.
Clinical questions always go to your pharmacist. If a patient asks about dosing, side effects or anything that sounds like medical advice, the Agent sends it to a licensed pharmacist. That is built in.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to my prescriptions if my chain store closes?
The closing store usually sells its prescription files to another store, and your records move there. You can still transfer your prescriptions to any store you choose by calling it. In Rite Aid's 2025 closures, 921 of 955 stores (96.4%) sent their files to another chain pharmacy, according to a study in JAMA Health Forum published in July 2026.
Who bought Rite Aid's prescription files?
Rite Aid said in May 2025 that it would sell customer prescription files to 13 buyers, including CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons and Kroger, Reuters reported. At that hearing, Rite Aid had buyers for files at 810 stores and had not found buyers for 200 others.
Can an independent pharmacy buy prescription files from a closing store?
An independent pharmacy can buy prescription files from a closing store, but the closing store chooses who gets them. A closing store can sell its prescription files to another licensed store, and the closing store chooses the buyer. State rules set the steps. Louisiana, for example, requires a closing store to post a notice at least 10 days before closing that names the store receiving its files. Large chain closures usually sell files in bulk to other chains.
Can a controlled substance prescription be transferred to a new independent pharmacy?
A controlled substance prescription can sometimes move to a new independent pharmacy, within federal limits. Under 21 CFR 1306.25, refills for Schedule III, IV and V prescriptions can be transferred between stores one time only, unless the stores share a real-time online database, and the transfer must be made directly between two licensed pharmacists. Since August 28, 2023, under 21 CFR 1306.08(e), a patient can ask to transfer an unfilled electronic prescription for a Schedule II through V controlled substance to another retail store one time.
Do independent pharmacies gain patients when chain stores close?
Independent pharmacies have gained patients as chain stores closed. The average independent pharmacy filled 67,601 prescriptions in 2024, up from 59,644 in 2023, and NCPA pointed to nearby store closures as a likely reason. In 2025, the average was 65,795, according to NCPA's 2026 Digest.
How many stores are Walgreens and CVS closing?
Walgreens announced on October 15, 2024, a plan to close about 1,200 stores over three years, including about 500 in its 2025 fiscal year. CVS said it planned to close about 270 stores in 2025, as reported by NBC Chicago in May 2025. Rite Aid has closed all of its stores.
Did states do anything to help patients when Rite Aid closed?
Some states stepped in to help patients when Rite Aid closed. In July 2025, Delaware's Insurance Commissioner told insurers to make prescription transfers easier for patients of closed Rite Aid stores and expected a "significant increase in prescription transfer requests." The bulletin also said pharmacy benefit managers should pay the stores absorbing those patients fairly.
What does VOXO do for independent pharmacies?
VOXO is a phone and AI partner built for independent pharmacies. The VOXO Pharmacy AI Agent answers calls day or night, takes refill requests and puts them straight into the PMS, and answers routine questions. Clinical questions always go to a licensed pharmacist. Since launch, it has answered more than 1.7 million calls for independent pharmacies.
