Rite-Aid Move an Aesthetic Boost

All an improvement; but will that Rite-Aid be open later than 8pm?

What the Rite Aid will bring to that corner and Broadway in general is amazing -- but what will happen to the old location?

3 cheers for this much better Rite-Aid! Can't wait till it opens and refreshes that terrible NE corner of 5th/Bway. I thought I read something on this blog that the old location across the street will become a parking garage?? I hope not. Broadway needs retail frontage, not more blank walls or the noses of cars staring at the sidewalk! Contrary to popular opinion, Dwntwn does not need more parking structures.

The new store looks about 50 times better! thank God. hopefully the old building will get a rehab similar to the new location and can attract new exciting retail.

Serious improvement. I can't stand those '80s garish corporate color signs. The Rite-Aid in Santee Court also has nice signage - the neon vertical sign really helps LA St. all the way from 6th down to its location at 7th. As for hours - yeah, it would be nice if it was open beyond 8 pm - but just a few years ago there was nothing open after dusk - much less dark... so things are getting better.

Isn't Rite-Aid changing to CVS though? If so, I hope the CVS corporate types maintain sensitivity with the signs. Is the LA Conservancy or a City agency that CARES involved with this? It seems as though someone who gives a rat's tail is involved, and that's a good thing...

That signage is AMAZINGLY reserved. I'm impressed! That's almost State Street in Santa Barbara quality corporate signage.

I've noticed the Rite-Aid on 7th Street is open until 9 p.m. most evenings. I've made a couple emergency baby supply runs and been pleased to find it open past 8 p.m. and quite busy, too.

The old Rite Aide is going to become a parking garage for sure, I live in the building. The small parking garage they already have for our building is full of double stacked cars and reluctant valets. Hoping the new garage will make it easier for me to get home!

kenarch: it was sav-on that was bought out by cvs/pharmacy. most of their locations appear to have changed over already, including the one near chinatown.

"The old Rite Aide is going to become a parking garage for sure, I live in the building."

Hopefully, they'll leave a tiny bit of retail space in the front, just enough to sell lots of socks and knock-off perfume. That'll be a real boon to the neighborhood.

Too bad that nice "clean glass exterior" has already been defaced by a-holes who destroyed the windows with scratchiti. Probably can't see it if you're driving by in a car, but pedestrians can easily make it out while strolling by.

I was just in the old Rite Aid today and the manager said the new location would be opening "in a couple of months." I find it hard to believe it's going to take that long, but knowing the delays in downtown construction, that might be a reasonable length of time.

Hey trivia! What does CVS stand for?

"Consumer Value Stores." Wow.

"I was just in the old Rite Aid today and the manager said the new location would be opening "in a couple of months." I find it hard to believe it's going to take that long, but knowing the delays in downtown construction, that might be a reasonable length of time."

Not just construction time, but also getting fixtures and refrigeration units in place, plus stocking, hiring and training, etc.

Government approvals can slow things down incredibly. (and I am not saying they should skip it, just be a lot quicker.)

After catching Ozomatli's short set at the stage set up at 7th&Hill, I went strolling down Broadway and found that the new RiteAid is now officially OPEN. It's clean and brightly lit if still a little understocked and staffed by the same personel that manned the old place.

In a related development, El Huarache Veloz, a fine little restaurant that had once been part of the block of buildings on Broadway that was burned out a few months back has managed to quickly reopen (like a sandals clad phoenix) in the space just south of the new RiteAid.

Yeah, I saw the place is open now. Looks nice. Alas, the ice cream counter was shut down by the health authorities. Seems they didn't have the right permit.

The rumors keep surfacing that the southwest corner of 5th & Broadway will soon be the home of a new 7-11 store. The Z Best Electronics store that had held the corner space in the SB Grand Building for decades has been moved four doors down to the south to clear the premium space on the corner for a larger retailer with windows facing out to both Broadway and 5th streets. Building management has remained officially mum on the subject but they don't deny that 7-11 is the prospective new tenant.