Rite Aid has filed for bankruptcy. What it means for the pharmacy ...

Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy Sunday and plans to close an untold number of stores across the United States as it battles slumping sales and a slew of opioid lawsuits.

One of the largest pharmacy chains in the country, Rite Aid has in recent years struggled to keep up with bigger drugstore chains like CVS and Walgreens as it faces legal hurdles related to accusations that it helped fuel the raging opioid epidemic.

Rumors of its impending plans to file for bankruptcy began circulating at the end of August amid the company’s mounting billions of dollars of debt, declining sales and more than a thousand federal, state and local lawsuits claiming it filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers.

Here’s what you need to know about the filing, the legal woes and Rite Aid’s plans to stay afloat.

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What does Chapter 11 bankruptcy mean for Rite Aid?

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey.

The Chapter 11 filing means Rite Aid plans to stay in business while restructuring its debts through a court-controlled process. Rite Aid even said in a Sunday statement that it has raised $3.45 billion in financing from lenders as it continues to operate its stores while in bankruptcy.

When the company last filed a financial report in June, it had $3.3 billion in debt, compared to the $135.5 million in cash it had on hand.

In the statement about Chapter 11 filing, Rite Aid laid out a restructuring plan that includes closing underperforming stores.

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What do we know about store closures?

Founded in 1962, Philadelphia-based Rite Aid is one of the largest pharmacy chains in the nation with more than 2,000 stores in 17 states.

Most customers won’t have to worry about the bankruptcy filing disrupting their ability to shop or fill prescriptions at their local stores — unless, of course, that store is now slated to close. Rite Aid, which has closed several stores in recent months, said in its media release that it's preparing to close more.

"Rite Aid regularly evaluates its store portfolio to ensure it is operating efficiently while meeting the needs of its customers, communities and associates," the company said in a statement. "These efforts will further reduce the company’s rent expense and are expected to strengthen its overall financial performance."

Joy Errico, a spokesperson for Rite Aid, declined to release further information about how many stores were slated to close or what the timeline for closures would be when reached Monday morning by USA TODAY.

Rite Aid said in the statement that it will communicate with customers of stores that will be closing and ensure they are able to get access to the services they need at other nearby locations. Employees at closing stores will also be transferred "where possible," Rite Aid said.

What other plans does Rite Aid have?

Rite Aid plans to use the bankruptcy to resolve its legal disputes and also sell some of its businesses, including prescription benefit manager Elixir Solutions that it bought in 2015 for $2 billion.

As part of the bankruptcy plan, Rite Aid appointed on Sunday a new CEO to lead restructuring, Jeff Stein, who will also serve as a member of its board. Elizabeth Burr had been serving as interim CEO since January and will remain on the company’s board, Rite Aid said.

Stein, the founder of financial advisory firm Stein Advisors, said in a statement the company plans to remain in business for the long term.

“My priorities will include overseeing the actions now underway to strengthen the company’s financial position and further advance its journey to reach its full potential as a modern neighborhood pharmacy,” Stein said in the statement. “I have tremendous confidence in this business and the turnaround strategy that has been developed in recent months.”

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Why is Rite Aid facing opioid lawsuits?

Rite Aid's legal troubles related to its alleged role in the nationwide deadly abuse of opioids only further contributed to its mounting debt.

The many lawsuits filed against Rite Aid accuse the company of knowingly filling prescriptions for the addictive painkillers that did not meet legal requirements. In March, the Justice Department filed a complaint against Rite Aid asserting that it violated the Controlled Substances Act by filling prescriptions for excessive quantities of prescription pain killers that had “obvious red flags.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rise in U.S. opioid overdose deaths can be tied to the uptick in opioid prescriptions starting in the 1990s. Drug overdose deaths from prescription opioids jumped from 3,442 in 1999 to 16,706 in 2021, according to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Contributing: Bailey Schulz

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

Rite Aid closing 154 stores after bankruptcy filing: Here's where

Rite Aid's bankruptcy announcement earlier this week came with the promise that store closures would soon be imminent.

It was unclear at the time just how many of pharmacy chain's more than 2,000 locations would be targeted, but Monday court filings identified 154 underperforming stores that Rite Aid plans to shutter.

Rite Aid filed Sunday for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the beleaguered company faces slumping sales and battles a slew of lawsuits over its accused role in fueling the opioid epidemic by illegally filling prescriptions for painkillers. As part of the process, Rite Aid revealed its intention to close an untold number of its stores across 17 states.

A Rite Aid spokeswoman did not immediately respond Wednesday morning to USA TODAY's request to comment on the court filing about the store closures, which includes 38 in Pennsylvania, 31 in California, 20 in New York and 19 in Michigan. However, Joy Errico previously told USA TODAY that the company would transfer patients' prescriptions to nearby pharmacies "so there is no disruption of services."

Rite Aid, which has 45,000 employees, is also expected to give workers at closing stores the option to transfer to other locations "where possible," Rite Aid said in a Sunday media release.

Click on the state name to see the list of impacted stores or scroll below to see a full list of closures:

California | Connecticut | Delaware | Idaho | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | New Jersey | New York | Ohio | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Virginia | Washington

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Alhambra: 920 East Valley Boulevard

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Covina: 139 North Grand Ave.

Cupertino: 20572 Homestead Road

Dana Point: 24829 Del Prado

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Irvine: 8509 Irvine Center Dr.

Laguna Niguel: 30222 Crown Valley Parkway

La Mirada: 15800 Imperial Highway

La Puente: 13905 Amar Road

Long Beach: 4402 Atlantic Ave.

Los Angeles: 4044 Eagle Rock Boulevard; 4046 South Centinela Ave; 959 Crenshaw Boulevard

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Monterey: 499 Alvarado St.

Oceanside: 3813 Plaza Dr.

Ontario: 3000 South Archibald Ave.

Oxnard: 720 North Ventura Road

Ramona: 1670 Main St.

Sacramento: 1309 Fulton Ave.

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Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

Rite Aid store closure list grows: Pharmacy shutters 31 more locations

Pharmacy chain Rite Aid is shuttering an additional 31 stores in a dozen states, according to a recent bankruptcy court filing.

The company announced more than 150 other store closures last month when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A Wednesday news release said it operates more than 2,300 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states.

Rite Aid spokesperson Catherine Carter said the stores that will be closing have been underperforming and will be closed “to further reduce rent expense and strengthen overall financial performance.” The company plans to give workers at closing stores the option to transfer to other locations.

Why did Rite Aid file for bankruptcy?

Rite Aid, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the country, filed for bankruptcy in October as it faced slumping sales and more than a thousand federal, state and local lawsuits accusing it of fueling the opioid epidemic by illegally filling painkiller prescriptions.

The company’s stock had dipped more than 95% over the past year and closed up 2.4% Wednesday at $0.22.

Other pharmacies closing

The closures come as the U.S. pharmacy system as a whole struggles to operate efficiently with less staff. Pharmacists at some of the nation’s largest chains have started to protest deteriorating working conditions, with employees at Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS staging walkouts in recent months.

Other pharmacy chains have also been shuttering stores. Walgreens in July said it planned to close 150 locations in the U.S. and another 300 in the United Kingdom, and CVS in 2021 announced plans to close 300 stores per year over the next three years.

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Which Rite Aid stores are closing?

California:

1020 Al Tahoe Blvd. in South Lake Tahoe

11230 Donner Pass Road in Truckee

1475 41st Ave. in Capitola

49060 Road 426 in Oakhurst

5747 Kanan Road in Agoura

1350 North Vasco Road in Livermore

4980 Freeport Blvd. in Sacramento

Connecticut:

66 Church St. in New Haven

Maryland:

1301 East State St. in Delmar

Michigan:

1301 West 14 Mile Road in Clawson

3681 Shawnee Road in Bridgman

New Jersey:

93 Atlantic Blvd. in Beachwood

121 West Main St. in Moorestown

New York:

335 Route 25A in Miller Place

5825-35 Broadway in Bronx

Nevada:

1329 U.S. Hwy 395 North, #1 in Gardnerville

Ohio:

5033 Suder Ave. in Toledo

4332 Cleveland Ave., NW in Canton

501 Water St. in Chardon

Oregon:

435 Liberty Street, N.E. in Salem

785 South Columbia River Hwy in St. Helens

Pennsylvania:

927 Paoli Pike in West Chester

821 East Bishop St. in Bellefonte

6200 Saltsburg Road in Pittsburg

2545 Aramingo Ave. in Philadelphia

Virginia:

163 W. Ocean View Ave. in Norfolk

7601 Granby St. in Norfolk

4501 News Road in Williamsburg

Washington:

15801 Pacific Ave. in Tacoma

1628 5th Ave. in Seattle

691 Sleater Kinney Road SE in Lacey

Spokesperson Carter said the company has not confirmed any decisions on additional store closures at this time.

Why Rite Aid could be filing for bankruptcy

Rite Aid is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy to address a slew of opioid lawsuits.

Philadelphia-based Rite Aid’s stock price dipped more than 50% Friday after the reports on the pending bankruptcy filing were published by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.The Chapter 11 filing would allow the company to restructure its more than $3 billion debt load and help it address lawsuits alleging the company filled hundreds of thousands of opioid prescriptions unlawfully.

When asked for comment on the reports, Rite Aid spokesperson Joy Errico said “we do not comment on rumors or speculation.”

What is the Rite Aid opioid scandal?

Rite Aid is facing lawsuits alleging the company helped fuel the country’s opioid epidemic by knowingly filling prescriptions for painkillers that did not meet legal requirements.

The Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against the company earlier this year, claiming that it violated the Controlled Substances Act by repeatedly filling prescriptions that had “obvious red flags.”

The Journal reports that the company also faces more than a thousand federal lawsuits that were consolidated in Ohio and other pending litigation in state courts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rise in U.S. opioid overdose deaths can be tied to the uptick in opioid prescriptions starting in the 1990s. Drug overdose deaths from prescription opioids rose jumped from 3,442 in 1999 to 16,706 in 2021, according to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Why would Rite Aid file for bankruptcy?

Rite Aid has yet to agree on a settlement with the opioid plaintiffs to resolve liabilities in a potential bankruptcy filing, according to the Journal. A Chapter 11 filing would pause those lawsuits and allow the company to consolidate the claims.

“It's one-stop shopping,” said Bruce Markell, a bankruptcy law professor at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. “Otherwise they would have to go into something like the multi-district litigation … with lots of different trials.”

Pharmaceutical companies including Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt and Endo Pharmaceuticals have already reached settlements for similar opioid-related claims in bankruptcy.

“The downside of it, obviously, is the victims who are hurt get a limited day in court if they get a day in court at all,” Markell said. “They don't get to plead their case before a jury.”

A bankruptcy filing could also impose a hard cap on Ride Aid’s aggregate liability exposure, said Ralph Brubaker, a law professor at the University of Illinois.

“Companies are becoming very aggressive in using bankruptcy to try to get that hard cap on their liability, even if the litigation is not too much to handle,” he said.

Brubaker pointed to Johnson & Johnson as a recent example. Its attempt to settle lawsuits from people claiming its talc-based powder caused cancer in bankrupcy court was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year because the company was determined not to be in financial distress.

What does this mean for Rite Aid customers?

With more than 2,000 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states, Rite Aid is among the largest pharmacy chains in the country. But customers won’t have to worry about a potential bankruptcy filing upending their day-to-day interactions with the company.

The Chapter 11 process is “fairly invisible as far as customers are concerned,” Brubaker said. “The whole point of the Chapter 11 processes is to preserve the business operations and the value of that ongoing business to the greatest extent possible so that the payout to the claimants can be as large as possible.”

Markell said regular customers can expect their interactions with Rite Aid to continue as normal should the company file for bankruptcy.

“Rite Aid has every incentive to continue to operate and serve its customers the way it has in the past,” he said. “If I had a long-term prescription at Rite Aid, I might not change it if they filed. If Rite Aid was the closest pharmacy for where I go to get band-aids, I wouldn't stop doing that.”

Rite Aid announces closing date for Penfield NY store

Update, Oct. 19, 2023: A Rite Aid store at 1567 Penfield Road in Panorama Plaza will close permanently on Nov. 7, a Rite Aid spokesperson said, and provided this statement from the company:

"Like all retail businesses, we regularly review each of our locations to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers, communities and overall business. A decision to close a store is one we take very seriously and is based on a variety of factors, including business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability, and store performance. For our customers, we make every effort to ensure they have access to health services, whether at another Rite Aid or other nearby pharmacy, and we work to seamlessly transfer their prescriptions so there is no disruption of services. We will also strive to transfer associates to other Rite Aid locations where possible. We will continue to keep our website updated with information about which stores are open.

Additional information can be found at riteaidrestructuring.com."

***

Original story, Oct. 18, 2023: Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Oct. 15 and plans to close 154 stores across the country — including one in the Rochester market — as it battles slumping sales and a slew of opioid lawsuits.

The store slated to close here is at 1567 Penfield Road in Panorama Plaza, according to court paperwork.

Store closing dates have not been announced.

Most of the targeted locations in New York state are in the New York City metropolitan area; other upstate stores include two in Erie County — one in Cheektowaga and one in Kenmore.

In May, Rite Aid closed its location at 535 Portland Ave. in northeast Rochester, citing among other things, “local business conditions and viability, and store performance.”

One of the largest pharmacy chains in the country, Rite Aid has in recent years struggled to keep up with bigger competitors like CVS and Walgreens as it faces legal hurdles related to accusations that it helped fuel the raging opioid epidemic.

Rumors of Rite Aid’s plans to file for bankruptcy began circulating at the end of August amid the company’s mounting billions of dollars of debt, declining sales and more than a thousand federal, state and local lawsuits claiming it filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers.

Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.

Coronavirus store closings: Can these 10 retailers avoid bankruptcy?

Get ready for what could be the biggest slate of store closures and retail bankruptcies in recent memory.

For every day that retailers are closed during the coronavirus crisis, the chances that they won't survive this pandemic grow larger.

While some retailers are flourishing – namely chains with major grocery sales like Walmart, Target, Kroger and Costco – others are trying to stave off doom. In many cases, these retailers were already in trouble already as Americans shopped increasingly online.

Forever 21 and J.C. Penny were hanging by a thread, while Sears and Kmart have been waiting for the final shoe to drop for years. Now these and other chains, including Neiman Marcus, David's Bridal and Ascena Retail Group, are losing cash rapidly while they await the chance to reopen their doors. But there’s no guarantee that customers will come flocking back to shop amid serious concerns about their finances and getting exposed to the still lingering virus.

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U.S. retailers have already announced 2,184 permanent closures this year, most of which were announced before the pandemic began, according to retail analytics firm Coresight Research.

Papyrus, Modell’s Sporting Goods and Art Van Furniture announced plans to liquidate all of 635 of their locations.That follows a year in which more than 9,700 stores closed, according to updated data released Friday by Coresight.

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Now, chains like GNC, J. Crew and Rite Aid are fighting for their lives, according to analysts.

Camilla Yanushevsky, a retail stock analyst for CFRA Research, said the fallout for retail will be “pretty striking” after several years of mass closures.

“It’s a battle of who’s going to survive, who’s just going to close and who’s going to need to file for bankruptcy,” she said. “The companies that are most at risk at the ones that were already distressed before the crisis.”

While the federal government’s $2.2 trillion stimulus package includes funds to ease the financial impact of the coronavirus on consumers, airlines and small businesses, Yanushevsky said it’s not likely to help large physical retailers much in the long run.

“I think a lot of people are going to be more hesitant to go into stores, specifically malls or more closed areas, until a vaccine comes out,” Yanushevsky said. “We’ve already seen a big shift to e-commerce and that’s just going to proliferate more for safety reasons.”

Jim Van Horn, a bankruptcy attorney at Barnes & Thornburg who has handled retail restructuring cases, also predicted a wave of bankruptcies. But he said they won’t happen until the pandemic has somewhat ebbed, if only because retailers and their creditors wouldn’t want to risk a liquidation until going-out-of-business sales could occur.

“Once we turn the corner on COVID-19 or when there is some general consensus of when things are going to get back to normal, there will be a tremendous amount of bankruptcy activity,” he said.

Sarah Wyeth, retail and restaurant sector lead for S&P Global Ratings, said about a quarter of retailers and restaurants tracked by S&P are now rating as having a 50% chance of defaulting on their debts. Failing to pay on time is often a precursor to restructuring or bankruptcy.

In 2019, which included the liquidation of chains like Payless ShoeSource, Gymboree and Charlotte Russe, more than 9,700 stores closed.

Here’s a list of retailers that are trying to avoid the same fate, based on USA TODAY research, public data and analyst reports:

Forever 21

Forever 21 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September with plans to close roughly 100 struggling stores and save the rest of the business. The company then finished a deal on Feb. 19 to sell most of its remaining assets to a group of investors led by Authentic Brands and mall owner Simon Property Group, which had previously used a similar model to rescue fashion retailer Aéropostale.

Talk about tough timing.

Exactly a month later, while still deciding which stores to liquidate, the buyer temporarily closed all Forever 21 locations due to the pandemic.

Now, the investment group has requested court permission for an extension on the deadline to decide which stores to close, according to a bankruptcy court filing.

The pandemic disruption threatens to derail Forever 21’s comeback before it even gets underway.

J.C. Penney

The department store chain's stock, which was already trading below 70 cents when March began, closed Thursday at 34 cents. With a total market value of about $108 million, J.C. Penney is running out of time to pull off its turnaround plan.

“Before the coronavirus, I thought there was going to be some hope for J.C. Penney,” Yanushevsky said. “It did look like they had some good ideas brewing, but … this could be the final straw for them.”

In 2019, the Texas-based chain closed 27 stores, ended sales of appliances and furniture and placed the company's focus back on its bread and butter: compelling apparel and related merchandise. In 2020, the chain has already announced six additional permanent closures.

With a junk credit rating of CCC from S&P Global Ratings and an outlook of negative, J.C. Penney is scrambling to get traction.

Sears and Kmart

These sibling chains have been out of bankruptcy for about 14 months, but it was hard to envision a return to greatness before the pandemic, let alone after it.

Sears and Kmart have closed more than 3,500 stores and cut about 250,000 jobs over the last 15 years. After tumbling into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2018, the chains narrowly escaped total liquidation after a last-minute sale in February 2019 to their parent company's longtime investor and former CEO Eddie Lampert.

But time is running out for Sears and Kmart to stabilize their businesses. In February 2020, another 51 Sears and 45 Kmart locations were set to close, leaving some 182 surviving stores.

Neiman Marcus Group

The luxury department store chain completed a debt restructuring plan in 2019 that included what S&P Global Ratings considered to be a "distressed" exchange.

After the move, S&P rated the company as a "continued risk of restructuring."

That may come to fruition. Reuters reported April 2 that Neiman Marcus, whose stores include the Bergdorf Goodman chain, was preparing a potential bankruptcy filing.

Neiman Marcus already announced in March that it would close the majority of its 22 Last Call stores. Now, the company is hoping to avoid the fate of luxury rival Barney's, which liquidated in 2019.

David’s Bridal

David’s Bridal survived Chapter 11 bankruptcy, emerging from the process in January 2019 and charting plans to cut prices, improve its digital operations and add additional selections.

Now, weddings and receptions have been disrupted throughout the country, with many governments limiting the number of people who can attend.

While normal weddings will likely resume after the crisis subsides, the economic effects of the pandemic could lead couples to delay plans or spend less on their big day.

David’s Bridal has already announced plans for “a substantial reduction in expenses, capital expenditures and inventory commitments,” as well as pay cuts and furloughs for most store employees and more than half of its corporate workers.

Ascena Retail Group

Like other apparel retailers with a heavy commitment to shopping malls, Ascena’s stores were grappling with declining foot traffic long before the pandemic. The company's brands include Lane Bryant, Justice, Loft and Ann Taylor.

Now, hopes of a sudden influx of business in the wake of the pandemic seem especially dim.

In 2019, 62% of store closure announcements came in the apparel sector, according to global marketing research firm Coresight Research.

Rite Aid

Rite Aid was already stuck in an uncomfortable netherworld: not big enough to present a threat to drugstore rivals Walgreens and CVS but not agile or rich enough to reinvent itself.

Rite Aid also faces the additional threat of disappointing health care insurance reimbursement rates and generic drug costs, according to CFRA Research.

A few bad breaks haven't helped: A merger deal with grocery chain Albertsons collapsed in 2018, leaving the company's path to reinvention unclear.

Now, with $3.3 billion in liabilities, Rite Aid has the third most debt of any retailer rated as distressed by Moody's Investor Service, behind only J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus.

GNC Holdings

Listed by Moody's as among the most distressed retailers, GNC has already announced 304 store closures this year, according to Coresight Research.

On March 20, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the nutrition products retailer's credit rating to CC due to the company’s “likely inability to repay debt.”

“We believe conditions for GNC are deteriorating substantially due to the coronavirus pandemic, the anticipated macroeconomic downturn and the limited access to capital markets,” S&P reported.

J. Crew

With $1.4 billion in debt, J. Crew has the sixth-most debt among distressed retailers, according to Moody’s.

The long-distressed retailer announced on Dec. 2 that it had agreed to terms to separate its J. Crew stores and Madewell women's apparel business into independent companies.

The profitable Madewell brand was in solid shape and was set to be spun out in an initial public offering that will lead to "sustainable capital structures" for both companies, interim CEO Michael Nicholson said in statement Dec. 2.

But Bloomberg reported March 20 that the plan has been delayed indefinitely as "J. Crew is no longer considering taking its most profitable brand public in the near future.”

With J. Crew stores closed indefinitely due to the pandemic like many other retailers, the chain’s future is becoming cloudier by the day.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.

FTC bans Rite Aid from AI facial recognition use after unfair searches

The Federal Trade Commission has banned Rite Aid from using AI facial recognition technology, accusing the pharmacy chain of recklessly deploying technology that subjected customers – especially people of color and women – to unwarranted searches.

The decision comes after Rite Aid deployed AI-based facial recognition to identify customers deemed likely to engage in criminal behavior like shoplifting. The FTC says the technology often based its alerts on low-quality images, such as those from security cameras, phone cameras and news stories, resulting in "thousands of false-positive matches" and customers being searched or kicked out of stores for crimes they did not commit.

"Rite Aid failed to take reasonable measures to prevent harm to consumers from its use of facial recognition technology," the complaint alleges.

Two of the cases outlined in the complaint include:

An employee searching an 11-year-old girl after a false match. The girl’s mother said she missed work because her daughter was "so distraught by the incident."

Employees calling the police on a Black woman after a false alert. The person in the image that triggered the alert was described as “a white lady with blonde hair.”

“It has been clear for years that facial recognition systems can perform less effectively for people with darker skin and women,” FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya said in a statement. “In spite of this, we allege that Rite Aid was more likely to deploy face surveillance in stores located in plurality-non-White areas than in other areas.”

The FTC said facial recognition was in use between 2012 and 2020 in hundreds of stores, and customers were not informed that the technology was in use.

“Rite Aid's reckless use of facial surveillance systems left its customers facing humiliation and other harms, and its order violations put consumers’ sensitive information at risk," Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a Tuesday statement. “Today’s groundbreaking order makes clear that the Commission will be vigilant in protecting the public from unfair biometric surveillance and unfair data security practices.”

A statement from Rite Aid said the company is pleased to reach an agreement with the FTC, but it disagrees with the facial recognition allegations in the complaint.

"The allegations relate to a facial recognition technology pilot program the Company deployed in a limited number of stores," the statement reads. "Rite Aid stopped using the technology in this small group of stores more than three years ago, before the FTC’s investigation regarding the Company’s use of the technology began."

The ban is to last five years. If Rite Aid does decide to implement similar technology in the future, the order requires it to implement comprehensive safeguards and a “robust information security program” overseen by top executives. The FTC also told Rite Aid to delete any images collected for the facial recognition system and said the company must tell customers when their biometric information is enrolled in a database for surveillance systems.

The settlement comes as Rite Aid works its way through bankruptcy proceedings. The FTC’s order is set to go into effect once the bankruptcy and federal district court give approval.

Prescription for disaster: America's broken pharmacy system in ...

Pharmacists with the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain felt dangerously burned out.

It was August 2020. The pandemic was in full swing, straining an already weary workforce hit by a decade of relentless budget cuts and rising demands.

One by one, the pharmacists dialed into a weekly conference call with their boss. He could have empathized with them or addressed the reality of their pressure-cooker environment – one that breeds medication errors and creates missed opportunities to prevent potentially deadly mistakes.

Instead, CVS District Leader Khalil Haidar turned up the heat. He harped on his Texas-and-Louisiana-based team to hit corporate quotas: Sell more store memberships. Push for more prescription pickups. Vaccinate more people. He threatened discipline and staff cuts unless pharmacists convinced at least five customers that week to get a flu shot before flu season had even officially started.

“If you get your goal, nobody will come after you," Haidar said on the call, one of several recorded and shared with USA TODAY. "And many patients, they are ignorant. They don’t know what the flu is ... How are you going to convince them? How can you persuade them? That’s your job as a pharmacist.”

Pharmacists take an oath to hold patient safety in the highest regard when preparing and dispensing medication. But rising pressures inside the nation’s largest retail chains have forced pharmacists to choose between that oath and their job.

The situation was bad before the pandemic. COVID-19 made it worse. It has only gone downhill since then. Frustrations boiled over this autumn in a series of high-profile walkouts that left a string of CVS and Walgreens pharmacies shuttered or short-staffed. Those actions might have caught consumers off guard. But inside the troubled industry, it was the clarion call of a beleaguered workforce pushed to the brink.

Corporations like CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart have consistently slashed pharmacy staffing levels while simultaneously saddling their frontline workers with a burgeoning list of additional duties.

Stores that a decade ago might have had two pharmacists and six pharmacy technicians filling an average of 500 prescriptions a day now may have half the staff and an even higher prescription volume – plus an endless crush of vaccine appointments, rapid tests and patient consultation calls.

Every task is timed and measured against corporate goals that reward speed and profits. Staff who do not fill prescriptions fast enough, answer the phones quickly enough or drum up enough vaccination business can face discipline, reassignment or termination.

Pharmacists said it’s nearly impossible to meet all the demands without cutting corners, and when corners get cut, patients can get hurt.

“The public’s health is in danger,” said Oklahoma City pharmacist Bled Tanoe, who quit her job at Walgreens in August 2021 over what she considered unsafe staffing levels and an emphasis on hitting corporate targets. “The incidents of error are multiplied by infinity.”

USA TODAY interviewed four dozen current and former retail pharmacists from different chains across the nation and spoke with industry leaders, patient advocates and patients harmed by pharmacy errors. Many pharmacists spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs.

The media organization also reviewed more than 100 emails from chain pharmacists sharing their concerns; inspected internal emails, text messages, metric score sheets and coaching notes; and listened to more than five hours of recorded conference calls.

These interviews, audio recordings and documents – along with dozens of pharmacist workplace surveys, task force studies and state board of pharmacy reports – add up to a prescription for disaster.

“I could cry as to what’s happening in my profession,” said Daniel A. Hussar, a professor and dean emeritus at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, where he taught for 52 years before retiring in 2018 to focus on his family and his blog, The Pharmacist Activist.

Hussar lamented the transformation of a once-vaunted career into the equivalent of a fast-food job whose workers are pressured to upsell every customer and race through every order. Mistakes in that environment are not only common, he said, they’re potentially fatal.

“At corporations like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid – the huge pharmacies – errors are a cost of doing business,” Hussar said. “I don’t think the boards of pharmacy or the colleges of pharmacy or the professional associations are doing enough to address the issues.”

For years, pharmacists have reported these problems to their state boards, complained to their professional organizations and warned the media. The New York Times wrote about how the dangerous workload imperils patient safety just before the pandemic hit U.S. shores.

Promises were made and broken – documented by pharmacists themselves in state surveys that followed.

In California, 91% of chain pharmacists surveyed by the state Board of Pharmacy in 2021 said they lacked the staff needed to ensure adequate patient care. More than half of pharmacists polled by the Kansas Board of Pharmacy in 2022 said they didn’t feel they could perform their jobs safely; the biggest reasons cited were a lack of adequate staffing and employer-imposed metrics, like filling a specific number of prescriptions a day or providing service to customers within a set time.

Hundreds of pharmacists in Ohio responded to a 2020 callout from their state board about the toll of their workload on patient safety in a report made public in the next year.

“I feel a mistake is breathing down my neck as I try to manage all the tasks that I am asked to perform,” one wrote. Another said they had left the profession because “the environment was set up for me to fail.”

State regulatory bodies overseeing pharmacies have for years refused to intervene. Their role is mainly to protect consumers, not pharmacists, and they traditionally considered many of these complaints – staffing, metrics, workload – outside their purview. They were seen as business decisions, not consumer safety issues, said Karen Winslow, interim executive director of the Virginia Pharmacy Association.

That’s starting to change, but not without a fight.

Ohio proposed a series of rules this year aimed at improving pharmacy working conditions. Among them: A ban on quotas and requirements for sufficient staffing. The rules are currently pending a vote amid overwhelming support from pharmacists and opposition from retail pharmacy chains, including Walgreens and CVS.

“The Board should stay focused on the regulation of the practice of pharmacy rather than the business of pharmacy,” wrote CVS Director of Regulatory Affairs John Long in opposing an early version of Ohio’s rules last year.

Virginia passed emergency regulations in late September also banning production quotas and bolstering pharmacy staffing. Those rules are in effect until March 2025, giving the state time to develop and pass more permanent measures.

Enforcing these rules could prove challenging. California, one of the first states to outlaw pharmacy production quotas and mandate minimum staffing, is coping with routine violations by retail pharmacies that then fail to provide records to inspectors seeking to verify complaints, state Board of Pharmacy minutes show.

Professional associations, meanwhile, have earned their members’ scorn for hosting workshops on resiliency rather than advocating for better working conditions. Many pharmacists told USA TODAY they feel like no one stands up for them.

That, too, is starting to change. In the wake of the CVS walkouts last month, the new head of the American Pharmacists Association, the industry’s largest professional organization, flew to Kansas City to meet with the organizers and committed to more aggressive leadership on these issues.

“The APhA has been focused on longer-term fixes, and what we’ve heard loud and clear is we need to focus on the acute problems,” said Michael Hogue, the association’s chief executive officer and executive vice president. “That’s what we’re going to do.”

USA TODAY reached out to CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Rite Aid for comment.

Representatives of CVS and Walgreens generally acknowledged the challenges their pharmacists have faced in recent years but denied allegations of dangerous working conditions. They said goal-based metrics on measurable objectives such as quick prescription turnarounds, short telephone hold times and vaccination volumes are standard within the industry and meant to assess quality rather than penalize staff.

CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart all emphasized their commitments to patient safety and described their various efforts to continually reduce error rates.

“Patient safety is our highest priority,” Amy Thibault, CVS Pharmacy’s lead director of external communications, told USA TODAY. “Our more than 30,000 CVS pharmacists approach this responsibility with seriousness and dedication and we work hard to earn the trust of our pharmacy patients.”

CVS, Walgreens and Walmart also said they have invested in new technologies to streamline services, increased wages to better recruit and retain staff, and rolled out new initiatives to support their teams and reduce their workloads.

The major chains now provide half-hour lunch breaks for staff. Many also recently announced reduced pharmacy hours at locations nationwide. Walmart spokesman Tyler Thomason said reduced operating hours promote a “better work/life balance.”

But pharmacists told USA TODAY their workloads remain the same and that they’re pressured to work through lunch and stay late to finish everything. At locations where hours were cut, many pharmacists said, they’ve seen their salaries decrease accordingly.

“I’ve given the company thousands and thousands of dollars in free labor,” said a CVS pharmacist who was on Haidar’s team during the pandemic-era conference calls. “Our bosses can log into the computer any time and tell how far behind we are. They will send group texts and say, ‘I see you’re trending behind. What are your plans to finish it tonight?’ Very intimidating comments. You fear for your job all the time.”

Haidar, who now leads a different team, told USA TODAY the recordings must have been altered and that he never threatened staff with discipline for falling short of vaccination goals. He also said they are not an accurate depiction of his leadership. When asked if he would like to listen to the recordings, Haidar declined.

Michael DeAngelis, CVS’ executive director of corporate communications, said it is not the company’s “policy or practice to penalize pharmacy teams regarding the number of vaccinations they administer” and that it “is committed to compensating our colleagues appropriately for the hours they work.”

DeAngelis also said CVS recently reduced its pharmacy metrics by 50%, but he declined to provide additional details.

Walgreens announced last year the complete elimination of performance-based metrics, the only major chain to have taken such a step. But interviews with pharmacists and documents provided to USA TODAY show the company continues to push staff to hit unrealistic goals.

One Walgreens pharmacist said she was reprimanded earlier this month for taking too long to verify prescriptions, even though her extra diligence had caught several serious mistakes.

According to notes from her coaching session, shared with USA TODAY, she should take less than 30 seconds to verify the accuracy and appropriateness of every prescription, in addition to checking for potential problems like drug allergies or interactions.

“I pray every day that I don’t miss something or cause a patient harm,” said the Tennessee-based pharmacist, who estimates she handles several hundred prescriptions daily. “I feel guilty knowing that I would want someone to double check the math on a prescription of antibiotics for my child, but I don’t have time to do that for their child.”

Medication errors: A pharmacist's worst nightmare

Medication errors are a pharmacist’s worst nightmare. Many told USA TODAY they lie awake at night wondering if, in their haste, they made a mistake that might hurt or kill someone.

In May 2021, that someone was Brenden Fisher.

The Sarasota, Florida, child overdosed on a newly prescribed anti-seizure medication after the CVS pharmacy near his home dispensed the drug with the wrong instructions on the label.

By the third dose, Brenden was lethargic, dazed and struggling to breathe. His parents, Paris Bean and Jason Fisher, rushed their then-2-year-old to the hospital, thinking he was dying.

Hospital staff didn’t know what was wrong with him, Bean recalled, until a nurse asked if he was taking his 1.2 ml of levetiracetam twice daily.

When Bean told her the instructions said to give him 7.5 ml, “you could almost hear her jaw drop,” Bean recalled. “She said, ‘Did you give that to him?’ And I said, ‘Yes. Is that why we’re here?’ She said, ‘I wouldn’t be surprised.’”

Brenden still suffers from a full-body tic he first developed during the incident, his parents said. Dozens of times a day, he will suddenly stop whatever he is doing, clasp his hands together, clench his jaw and tense every muscle in his body while staring off into space. Each episode lasts anywhere from 5-10 seconds.

His parents haven’t been able to definitively link the tic to the overdose, but they said they have no other explanation for it.

Anti-seizure medications like levetiracetam depress the central nervous system, Hussar said. Because nerves tell muscles when to contract and relax, he said, there could be a connection between the overdose and Brenden’s involuntary muscle contractions.

Bean said she blames CVS for the mistake but also herself: “I’m the one who physically administered it ... I could have killed him.”

CVS declined to comment on the error.

Bean and her husband filed a lawsuit against CVS in February that was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. But they said they did not file a complaint with the Florida Board of Pharmacy.

That means it’s one of countless errors for which there’s no official tally or public record.

Despite a widespread industry belief that medication errors are on the rise as a result of unsafe working conditions, there is no reliable or comprehensive public data to prove it.

No federal agency requires pharmacists to report medication errors, and few state boards of pharmacy mandate it. Many pharmacies and pharmacy chains track errors internally but do not share the numbers with the public. CVS and Walgreens both declined to share their data with USA TODAY.

“There really is no way of knowing how many errors are actually out there,” said Larry Selkow, a retired California pharmacist who recently served on the American Public Health Association’s task force on pharmacy medication safety issues.

The group estimated U.S. pharmacies annually make 54 million dispensing errors, of which 2.3 million are potentially harmful. It recommended the establishment of a national pharmacy reporting system to collect data on errors and their underlying causes. Having such information, Selkow said, would allow pharmacies to adopt practices to prevent future mistakes.

Numerous pharmacists told USA TODAY that errors are not consistently reported – even internally. Small mistakes and those caught early are routinely hidden.

“Some pharmacists don’t report it especially if they’ve already had, like, five errors that year," said Shane Jerominski, a California pharmacist who worked for both Walgreens and CVS. "For every error that gets found out, there will be an error that never gets caught."

Even when they do report potentially fatal errors, some pharmacists said, no one from their companies investigates how they occurred or makes changes to prevent them from repeating.

A former CVS pharmacy manager at a short-staffed, high-volume store in Georgia said he was horrified when one of his patients who was prescribed Bisoprolol for high blood pressure accidentally received a sleeping aid called Belsomra and got sick after she started taking it.

The pharmacist, who now works for Walmart, said he had hoped the error would be a wake-up call for higher-ups who might finally give his store adequate staffing. It didn’t work out that way.

“They had me do that little report, but my manager, nobody ever followed up,” he said. “They were like, ‘OK, cool, see if she would like a gift card, and we’ll handle it from here.’ And that was it. It’s like they could care less. Like it didn’t even happen.”

CVS did not comment on the incident, but Thibault said that the company’s first priority when it learns of any error is the patient’s safety. She said it then takes steps to correct the error and learn from it. Walgreens said in a statement that it’s mandatory for employees to report errors under the company’s “Continuous Quality Improvement Program.”

“We take any prescription error very seriously and have a multi-step prescription filling process with numerous safety checks to minimize the rare chance of human error,” said Marty Maloney, Walgreens’ senior manager of media relations.

Pharmacists are personally liable for medication errors and risk fines, discipline and loss of license if investigated and found responsible by their state board. Many told USA TODAY they get little or no support from their company when mistakes happen, even if the conditions imposed by those companies contributed to the error.

The Nevada Board of Pharmacy in September fined and suspended the licenses of two CVS pharmacists who accidentally gave a pregnant woman the abortion drug misoprostol instead of the fertility treatment she was prescribed. The mistake, which was first reported by 8NewsNow in Las Vegas, ended the woman’s pregnancy.

The Nevada board also fined CVS $10,000 over the objections of company attorney William Stilling who argued CVS itself did nothing wrong.

“The only allegation” against CVS, Stilling said, “is that they had these pharmacists.”

Pharmacy benefit managers played role in the current crisis

Retail pharmacy wasn’t always this bleak.

Twenty years ago the industry was thriving. CVS and Walgreens were opening new locations at a rapid clip. New pharmacy schools popped up to meet the needs of a profession in high demand. Meanwhile, Americans’ appetite for prescription drugs was soaring.

Independent and chain pharmacies alike were earning relatively healthy profits from drug sales and could afford to hire and retain enough staff to keep their operations humming.

A constellation of factors contributed to the industry’s downturn. They include rising drug costs, changing consumer habits and the emergence of online pharmacies.

But none looms larger than the outsized influence of pharmacy benefit managers. These third-party administrators of health insurers’ prescription drug programs have eroded the profits of retail pharmacies to the point where they now lose money on many sales.

“In today’s world, 7 out of 10 medicines dispensed by a pharmacy are dispensed at a loss,” Hogue said, referring to the non-generic drugs that represent pharmacies’ largest expense.

Pharmacy benefit managers, commonly referred to as PBMs, act as a middleman between the insurers, the drug manufacturers and the pharmacies. They negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, determine which drugs will be covered by insurance plans and set reimbursement rates for pharmacies that buy and sell the drugs.

As the power of PBMs rose over the years, they demanded bigger rebates from drug manufacturers and pocketed increasingly bigger shares of those savings instead of passing them along. They also lowered pharmacy reimbursement rates and tacked on hefty fees known as Direct and Indirect Remuneration.

The three largest PBMs – ExpressScripts, owned by Cigna; CVS Caremark, owned by CVS Health; and OptumRx, owned by the same company as UnitedHealthcare – control a majority of the market.

While PBMs’ collective profits skyrocketed over the past decade, their tactics plunged retail pharmacies into financial distress and left them scrambling for alternative sources of revenue, like vaccinations, to stay afloat.

The Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry last year into PBM practices, which have already been the subject of several lawsuits.

Independent pharmacies have been hit especially hard. Not only are their reimbursement rates lower than those of chains, but their patients have been steered away by PBMs that insist they use a preferred chain pharmacy instead.

Charles Thompson, a pharmacist and independent owner of Grove Park Pharmacy in Orangeburg, South Carolina, said he has lost countless customers who were told by their PBMs to use CVS and Walgreens instead. Between that and the lower reimbursements, he said, Grove Park had to diversify to stay open. It now offers an in-store medical clinic, hospice services and medical equipment rentals.

“If I had to rely only on filling prescriptions,” Thompson said. “I would be out of business.”

Other independent pharmacies simply closed. The United States has lost more than 3,500 mom-and-pop pharmacies in the past decade, according to data from the National Community Pharmacists Association, which represents independent pharmacies.

“The independents have been the canaries in the coal mine,” said B. Douglas Hoey, chief executive officer of the National Community Pharmacists Association.

Now the chains are following suit. CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid all recently announced the closure of hundreds of pharmacies as they face slumping revenues and the fallout from multiple lawsuits for their alleged roles in the nation’s opioid crisis. Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.

“It’s all coming home to roost,” Hoey said of the PBMs’ unchecked power and their practice of steering patients away from the independents and into the chains. “It has overloaded the system, and also that corporate mentally of just, ‘we’re going to work the workers to death,’ I think that’s coming home to roost, too.”

Pharmacists bleeding, crying, working alone

Like the metaphorical frog boiling in the pot, Wendy Lear said she didn’t realize how bad her job at CVS had gotten until there were so few staff left that she was forced to work alone, even when she had no business being behind the pharmacy counter.

Lear’s stint with CVS started in 2009 when the chain bought the independent pharmacy where she worked in Lexington, Kentucky. The transition was dramatic but initially tolerable, Lear said, because CVS retained enough pharmacists and technicians to meet the patients’ needs.

But that changed over the years as CVS whittled away its staff while heaping more work upon the few who remained.

One time, Lear recalled, she went to work while miscarrying her first child because her boss couldn’t find anyone to cover her overnight shift and begged her to go in. Bleeding, cramping and emotionally distraught, Lear said, she fielded phone calls and filled prescriptions until she had to lie down on the floor.

Another time when she was sick with norovirus and vomiting in a trash can behind the pharmacy counter, Lear said, she was asked to keep working until her boss could find someone to replace her. Lear toughed it out for two hours before texting her boss for an update.

“Any word???” she wrote. “I can’t stay here. I am so sick. I am going to have to close.”

Her boss texted back, instructing Lear to have the store manager take care of patients in her absence.

“That’s illegal,” Lear told USA TODAY of her boss’ request. “You have to have a pharmacist on premises to sell prescriptions. She was so frustrated I had to go home, and, it’s like, you have to have contingencies for when people fall ill during their shift.”

Eventually, Lear said, the demands of the job became too intense and the risk of errors too great – especially during solo shifts – that she quit CVS in 2021 and found a new job at an independent pharmacy, Remington Drug Co., in northern Virginia.

“Answering phone calls, taking prescriptions at drop off, entering those prescriptions, verifying once, filling those prescriptions, verifying twice, running the register, giving vaccinations, making metric-monitored phone calls, all fell on one person,” she said of her job at CVS. “In a double-check system, who’s checking me? This is when patient safety is most compromised.”

DeAngelis told USA TODAY it is not CVS’ policy or practice to require staff to work when they are ill.

But retail pharmacists from CVS and other chains across the country shared similar stories of corporate pressure and severe burnout:

“All day long stuff’s blowing up and management is yelling at us because we can’t answer the phones fast enough and we’re not giving enough immunizations,” said a current Walgreens pharmacist in Arizona. “I’ve seen pharmacists cry back in the pharmacy because it’s so busy.”

“This situation has slowly worsened, but the big turning point was when we started giving COVID shots,” said a current Walmart pharmacist in Iowa. “One day it was just me there, and I did 77 COVID shots.”

“There was not a single week where I didn’t work 80 hours, but I was only paid 42,” said a former CVS pharmacist from Virginia. “We were behind on prescriptions the entire year. I was begging, ‘please can we get more hours?’ Instead, corporate would suggest we do these overnighters to get caught up.”

Thousands of retail pharmacists left the industry during the first two years of the pandemic, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported a 6% drop in employment numbers between 2019 and 2021.

Although those numbers have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the latest data shows, overall interest in the profession has nosedived, raising questions about the future of pharmacy.

Applications to U.S. pharmacy schools plummeted nearly 70% from their peak in the fall of 2009 to the fall of 2021, according to the most recent data published by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Those schools, which graduated nearly 15,000 students a year at their peak, are expected to produce just 11,000 new pharmacists annually by 2025, Hogue said.

Stuart Beatty, dean of Ohio Northern University’s Raabe College of Pharmacy, said his school is facing the same enrollment slump despite efforts to recruit students and reassure them of a bright future.

If he and his academic peers can’t reverse the tide, he said, the nation soon could face a severe pharmacist shortage.

“It makes sense. Why would you go into a doctoral degree when all this is happening?” said Janan Sarwar, a Louisville-based pharmacist, publisher and career coach. “They want to help patients. They don’t want to enter a profession that oppresses their ability to help and do good in the world.”

Mistakes like this are why pharmacists say they're leaving

Shelby Richards blames chronic pharmacy understaffing for the medication error that cost her thousands of dollars.

The Memphis Walgreens she frequented was always “busy, low staffed, lines out the door,” Richards said, including the day in March 2021 when she retrieved a newly prescribed anti-anxiety medication to treat panic attacks after a car wreck.

Inside the bottle were two sizes of round, white pills. Richards said she assumed they were different doses of the same drug because her doctor had mentioned wanting to start her on 5 mg of Buspar before increasing it to 10 mg.

So she started taking the smaller of the two pills, not realizing it was a different drug altogether – a calcium channel blocker called amlodipine to treat high blood pressure.

Within days, Richards said, she began to feel nauseous, light-headed and her legs were swelling – all common side effects of amlodipine. Uninsured, she racked up $15,000 in bills from three hospital visits as doctors tried in vain to determine the cause, records show.

It wasn’t until her boyfriend took a closer look at her medication and noticed the different-sized pills that she had an answer.

“I told her it … should always be a separate bottle,” said her now-husband Taylor Richards, who researched the two pills online and learned the one she had been taking was the highest dose of amlodipine available.

The couple called Walgreens to report the error and said they were dismissed without an apology. They tried to sue but missed the state statute of limitations, so they filed a complaint with the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy, which they provided to USA TODAY.

“It seems like their staff is working like slaves,” Taylor Richards said. “There are usually two people back there, and it’s probably one of the busiest pharmacies around. I imagine they’re requiring them to fill so many prescriptions that it will continue to cause these types of errors.”

Walgreens declined to comment on the error.

Pharmacists, meanwhile, said it’s a prime example of how working conditions put patients at risk and why so many of them are quitting the profession altogether.

It’s also why dozens of pharmacists recently walked out recently in protest. Another walkout is planned for Oct. 30-Nov. 1. Pharmacists are calling it Pharmageddon.

“The primary reason is our concern for public safety,” said Corey Schneider, one of the CVS pharmacists who participated in the Kansas City walkout. “It’s also about basic decency. Pharmacists shouldn’t have to cry at work or go home worried that they made a mistake.”

A few, like Tanoe, have funneled their frustration into advocacy. The former Walgreens pharmacist launched a public campaign in 2021 around the hashtag #PizzaIsNotWorking to highlight the dangerous working conditions that gestures such as free pizza from corporate won’t fix.

Since then she has connected with thousands of retail pharmacy workers through her Facebook page, LinkedIn account and the online pharmacist advocacy community, RPhAlly, of which she is the vice president. She also helped organizers of the recent CVS and Walgreens walkouts share their messages and recruit participants and supporters.

Tanoe said it’s time the state pharmacy boards, professional organizations and corporate owners take these concerns seriously. If not, she said, the nation will see fewer pharmacies, fewer pharmacists and more incidents of patient harm.

“For so long we have been told our patients come first – no matter what you do, your patient comes first,” Tanoe said. “Now, we are saying, no. We come first. We hold our patients’ lives in our hands. If we’re not well, they’re not well.”

Emily Le Coz is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team. Contact her at elecoz@usatoday.com or @emily_lecoz.

These retail chains may not survive a recession | CNN Business

New York CNN Business —

America’s retail chains have proven surprisingly strong during the pandemic.

But a slowing economy may bring a fresh wave of store closings and bankruptcies. Retailers that sell mostly discretionary goods, cater to middle and lower-income consumers and have weak balance sheets will be most vulnerable.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Rite Aid (RAD), Party City (PRTY), Tuesday Morning (TUES), Joann and others currently have an elevated risk of bankruptcy, according to credit agencies, and will be most exposed if economic conditions deteriorate.

Other struggling chains, such as Gap (GPS), may be forced to close hundreds of stores, analysts say. And e-commerce companies such as Wayfair (W)and Stitch Fix (SFIX) that have slashed jobs in recent months may have to cut further.

“The companies that were skating on the edge before Covid had this brief reprieve. Now we’re going back to the old rules,” said Berna Barshay, an independent retail analyst.

These retailers and many others are currently grappling with a combination of forces that include higher costs, excess inventory, and financially-strapped customers.

As the pandemic has receded, consumers have been shifting their spending from goods to services such as travel and entertainment. Inflation is bearing down, causing a drop in consumer confidence and a pullback in discretionary areas such as furniture and apparel.

That’s why retailers’ inventories are bloated and companies are resorting to promotions to try to stimulate demand, chipping away at their profits.

“We believe many will turn to aggressive discounting to solve their inventory problem, which is likely to spark a ‘race to the bottom,’” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report Monday. “This dynamic will weigh heavily on margins and fuel [an] earnings slowdown.”

The Federal Reserve is also quickly raising interest rates to combat inflation, which is likely to cause some economic pain and job losses. The Fed anticipates that the unemployment rate could climb to 4.4% next year, up from 3.5% in September.

Many investors and economists are predicting a recession. Such a scenario would result in a downturn for the industry.

“This will put highly-levered retailers and weak companies at risk,” said Raya Sokolyanska, an analyst at Moody’s. “We expect defaults among speculative grade retailers to increase.”

The sector has been resilient for much of the pandemic, a break from prior years of bankruptcies and store closings that became known as the “retail apocalypse.” The sector is actually in a stronger position than it was before the pandemic, analysts say.

At the beginning of the pandemic, stores temporarily closed to halt the spread of Covid-19 and retail sales tumbled. This pushed already struggling chains, such as JCPenney, Neiman Marcus and J. Crew, into bankruptcy. “That wave of defaults effectively flushed out a lot of debt and unprofitable stores from the sector,” Sokolyanska said.

Retail sales quickly recovered thanks to federal stimulus checks, growing personal savings accounts and pent-up consumer demand.

Supply was also tight, allowing many chains to sell their merchandise at higher prices for the first time in years. “This was a tide that lifted all boats. For many companies, 2021 was a year of record profits,” Sokolyanska said.

Retail sales remain above pre-pandemic levels and more stores have announced openings than closings this year. Retail bankruptcies have also been at their lowest level in more than a decade.

Although 2023 is expected to be a challenging year for the sector, it won’t be as dire as before the pandemic. Many companies are in better financial shape from previous restructurings and have closed their weakest stores.

“We expect defaults to be below the prior peaks,” she said.

Neiman Marcus could file for bankruptcy this week, report suggests

Neiman Marcus is reportedly ready to file for bankruptcy after the coronavirus crisis forced the American retailer to temporarily shut down dozens of its stores for the past month.

The bankruptcy could happen as soon as this week, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

In March, the Dallas-based retailer temporarily closed 43 Neiman Marcus stores, along with its Last Call and Bergdorf Goodman locations, due to concerns surrounding COVID-19.

Neiman Marcus is carrying nearly $5 billion in debt, and the company's monthly debt payments are in the millions. The retailer refrained from making some payments last week, Reuters reports. Among the payments skipped was one that gave it a few days to avoid default.

USA TODAY has reached out to Neiman Marcus for comment.

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Neiman Marcus has approximately 14,000 employees; last month, the retailer announced furloughs and temporary pay cuts as a cash-saving measure during the pandemic.

It joins a long list of retailers that are bleeding cash rapidly while they await the chance to reopen their doors.

Chains such as GNC, Rite Aid and J. Crew with brick and mortar stores depend heavily on foot traffic. With widespread stay-at-home orders still in place, these companies might also be fighting for their lives in the wake of the outbreak.

Follow Dalvin_Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.


Paxton Lynch goes from Wing-T to prolific passer

Martin Frank

The News Journal

INDIANAPOLIS - Paxton Lynch wasn’t seen as a quarterback prodigy growing up in Deltona, Florida, mainly because he played at a high school that ran the Wing-T offense.

While that would have warmed the heart of legendary University of Delaware coach Tubby Raymond, it hardly interested the major college football programs.

Lynch ended up at Memphis, and the team went 1-11 in his first season in 2010. Five years later, and Lynch turned into a prolific passer and is considered a first-round pick in the NFL draft. He’s someone who could interest the Eagles with the 13th overall pick – if he’s still available.

Lynch said Friday he met with the Eagles informally at the NFL Scouting Combine this week, and was likely to have a formal interview.

“I didn’t throw the ball at all in high school,” Lynch said. “When I got to Memphis, that was the first time I started throwing the ball in general.”

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He pretty much hasn’t stopped. Lynch, who’s 6-foot-7, 245 pounds, threw for 3,776 yards last season, with 28 touchdowns and just four interceptions in leading the Tigers to a 9-4 record. But Lynch is considered just behind the top-two rated quarterbacks in North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz and California’s Jared Goff.

Lynch said that might have to do with the fact that Wentz played well at the Senior Bowl last month and that Goff comes from one of the power-five conferences, the Pac-12.

But it could also have to do with Lynch’s final game, a 31-10 loss to Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl. Lynch was 16 of 37 for 106 yards and an interception. Another red flag could have come Thursday, when Lynch said his physical ran long because X-rays showed “an issue” with his knees and the AC joint behind his shoulder.

“It spooked a team or two, I think,” Lynch said. “That’s why they requested the MRI and all that. But I didn’t miss a game or practice or single throw because of [the shoulder]. And none of those injuries bother me today. I’m 100 percent, so I was more than willing to do whatever they needed me to do.”

At the combine, that means doing all the drills, including throwing, along with Wentz and Goff, on Saturday. Lynch said he welcomes the competition.

“This draft, there are so many good guys that are coming out,” Lynch said. “It’s so close with all the quarterbacks. There’s really no guy who’s standing out right now. Any little edge you can get to compete against these guys, whether it’s throwing or agility and all that stuff, you kind of want to take advantage of that … It was a no brainer for me that I was going to throw because I wanted to compete. I know those guys are going to compete, so it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

No doubt, the Eagles, just like most NFL teams, will be watching intently.

Grinnage ready for combine

Newark High School’s David Grinnage said he’s enjoying the experience at the combine. He arrived Wednesday, went through physicals, testing and informal interviews with “at least 25 teams.”

On Saturday, the North Carolina State tight end will do his on-field testing. He said he hopes to run a “sub-4.7” seconds in the 40-yard dash. Grinnage said he won’t do the bench press, however, because of an elbow injury that hasn’t fully healed. He said he will save that for his Pro Day at N.C. State on March 21.

“It’s a big opportunity,” Grinnage said. “I don’t feel overwhelmed. I’m just embracing it all and trying to have fun with everything.”

Grinnage, who’s 6-5, 265 pounds, is projected as a mid-to-late round draft choice after having 25 catches for 296 yards and 3 TDs last season. But Grinnage said he has a lot to offer an NFL team because of his versatility.

“From 2013 to 2015, I’ve done it all,” he said. “I’ve blocked at point of attack, I’ve blocked on the outside, played in the slot, played backside by myself, great route-running, great hands, and I basically have the full package. Catching passes would be my No. 1 thing. Coming out of high school, I played wide receiver. That was one of the best things I did.”

Grinnage knows he’ll have to improve as a blocker. And he realizes that he’ll have to fight for his spot on the team, no matter where he’s drafted.

“I’ll do anything to put myself on the field the first play of the first game, even if it’s kickoff, kickoff return,” Grinnage said. “Teams want to know you’re going to do everything to get on that field.”

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.

How Mr. Celery is more popular than ever in his 21st year

Who's the biggest name in the Wilmington Blue Rocks organization?

That's easy.

There's only one with a rabid fan following, two outdoor bars named after him and is honored with his own section in the Frawley Stadium gift shop. Heck, there are even baseball jerseys available with his face plastered across it.

Is he a star prospect? A legendary alumnus? Perhaps the team's founder? Strike one, two, three. You're out!

It's Mr. Celery, a celery stalk mascot with eyes, arms, legs and an open mouth that runs onto the field every time the Rocks scores a run.

The oddball team cheerleader has gone from a what-exactly-is-happening-here curiosity to a beloved part of the team, a "friendly rival" of official mascot Rocky Bluewinkle.

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With Mr. Celery turning 21 this summer, he's finally old enough to drink at his bars on the concourse at the Riverfront stadium, including one dubbed O'Celery's Ale House.

Or he can try this season's newest addition: an exclusive Wilmington Brew Works beer dedicated to Mr. Celery made only for games dubbed Woo-Hoo Brew! served in green cans with Mr. Celery's face on the front. (This year's supply has already sold out.)

Legend has it that the vegetable mascot costume was rescued from a Dumpster before team officials trotted Mr. Celery on the field for the first time in 2000.

From the muck of a trash bin to the glory of cheers and high fives from fans, Mr. Celery has become one of the city's most recognizable, yet mysterious figures.

Even Blue Rocks official Kevin Linton is stumped about why he's gained such a following: "His popularity is just unexplained."

Mr. Celery's mystique

What makes Mr. Celery so unique?

It's not just the uncanny nature of seeing an excitable piece of celery come out and dance on the field after every run. It's how under wraps he is for the Blue Rocks, a High-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals.

You won't ever see him in the stands clowning around with fans like Rocky Bluewinkle. And he always passes on invitations for private events. There's only one place to see him: at the ballpark running out of the tunnel when the Rocks score.

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If they are shut out, Mr. Celery stays sitting beneath the stands and doesn't appear at all.

Fans just love it.

"That adds to his mystique," said Mike Harff, a Mr. Celery fan. (Or should we say stalker?) "And if he does come out, you only see him for like 15 seconds and then he disappears into that little hole there."

And when Mr. Celery does appear, it's always accompanied by the 1997 hit "Song 2" by English rock band Blur with the repeated refrain, "Woo hoo!"

The "woo hoo" expression fits Mr. Celery perfectly since his mouth is a circular hole, making it look like he's always exclaiming...something.

Linton, like the rest of the Blue Rocks staff and front office, knows that not everyone follows minor league baseball or comes to the ballpark just for baseball, necessarily. It's more than a game, it's a family event with theme nights, promotions and fireworks to keep people entertained and coming back.

That's one of the reasons Mr. Celery works so perfectly for the Blue Rocks: he's the star of their nightly sideshow.

If you think Mr. Celery is weird, the Blue Rocks sideshow has also included the popular Cowboy Monkey Rodeo in the past, featuring a capuchin monkey in a cowboy hat and chaps riding a border collie while herding sheep on the field.

"We're not just baseball. We have to entertain through marketing," Linton said.

In fact, the Blue Rocks puff their chests out a bit at conventions like the annual winter baseball meetings.

"I think we're the envy of a lot of teams when we say, 'We're the home of Mr. Celery,'" he said. "It's kind of like a genius invention that could have been invented by anybody. Our people were so focused on having something happen every time we scored a run and it just happened to be Mr. Celery."

Mr. Celery turns adults into kids again

The invention still works like a charm, possibly more now than ever, even after two decades.

Fans stream to the stadium for a two-night Celerybration each year with many coming early to last month's event to ensure they got their hands on a coveted Mr. Celery bobblehead, which was given to fans at the turnstiles.

Among them was Harff of Warminster, Pennsylvania, with wife Monica and their son Jared, 23.

Harff has been coming since 2017 when he met a friend from Maryland there and saw Mr. Celery for the first time, drawn to the silly spectacle.

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"The only games I've gone to since are Mr. Celery Days," Harff said, speaking about the crazy character with almost the same wonder as a child talking about Mickey Mouse. "We have three of the bobbleheads now and won a silent auction for a Mr. Celery jersey so we have that with two of the players' signatures on it.

"It's goofy and we just love to have fun with it."

If you're at a Mr. Celery-themed game and the Rocks score, it'll be hard to miss Mike cheering on his hero. He leaps to his feet and cheers him on like he's a Bruce Springsteen fan and The Boss himself just appeared.

And, no, he doesn't feel silly about cheering on an anonymous young man in a thick green costume.

"I don't care. I'm not a stick-in-the-mud curmudgeonly old man. I get up and cheer with the kids," said Harff, 55. "My wife doesn't mind. She's not slapping me and telling me I'm embarrassing."

He's not alone. Over the years, fans of all ages have got into the act, whether it's teenagers with Mr. Celery spelled out on their painted chests or a group of young professionals who put on over-the-top celebrations wearing "Celery Squad" t-shirts.

Some have even brought celery into the stadium to eat and throw when a run is scored.

A dumpster and a brainstorm

Just like most, one of Harff's first Mr. Celery-related questions was: "How did this start?"

For something that began only 21 years back, the origin story of Mr. Celery is pretty hazy and feels like more of a legend. But for years, club officials have stuck with his general timeline:

Before he made his debut on the field, the Mr. Celery costume was salvaged from a dumpster in 1999, the story goes. When a concessions company threw out a few costumes, including a hot dog, a peanut and popcorn, they rescued the celery costume.

There was something about the healthy alternative that sparked an idea in someone's head.

"They came up with this character out of the blue in probably one of their brainstorming meetings since they already had the costume," Linton said.

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The next season, Mr. Celery made his debut. And just imagine how weird it must have been those first few games when fans saw the perpetually surprised-looking mascot run out.

"Is that...is that a piece of celery running on the field?," more than a few fans must have thought. (At a game a few years back, a confused fan was heard asking a friend, "Is that a giant asparagus?)

While some may not recognize Mr. Celery, he does get plenty of attention.

A whole section of the gift shop is painted green with a "Fresh Produce" sign above where all sorts of Mr. Celery merchandise is available including a green "Straight Outta the Garden" T-shirt, green Mr. Celery baseball jerseys and plush Mr. Celery dolls.

Over the years, Mr. Celery has had his fair share of attention from features in The News Journal to a 2006 interview with sports website Deadspin. In fact, baseball Hall of Famer George Brett just had to have his picture taken with Mr. Celery during a visit to Frawley Stadium when the team was a Kansas City Royals affiliate.

'Is the name of the team The Celeries?'

His biggest rock star moment came on a rare night when Mr. Celery was out on the field when the Blue Rocks weren't playing. Chicago rockers Wilco were in Wilmington headlining a summer show at Frawley Stadium.

The band invited him on stage during the encore, eliciting a roar from locals and a buzz of confusion from Wilco fans who traveled from out-of-state for the concert.

Mr. Celery hopped on stage wearing a red Wilco cape as Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy declared, "We like the celery!"

The band wasn't quite yet done having fun, though. And neither were fans.

Suddenly, stalks of celery came flying on stage – thrown by amazingly well-prepared Mr. Celery stans.

Both Tweedy and guitarist Nels Cline picked celery off the ground and took bites before asking for some dental floss. "Is the name of the team The Celeries? Is it the Wilmington Celeries?" Tweedy joked.

A gimmick-turned-tradition

Whether you're a rocker or baseball fan, Mr. Celery is oddly endearing and has a weird way of finding a little place in your heart.

Gil and Susan Mays of Media, Pennsylvania, also attended last month's Mr. Celery-themed weekend, bringing along their grandchildren and daughter and son-in-law.

And the little ones weren't the only celeryheads in the group. Gil had a Mr. Celery face mask, and Sue was wearing a Mr. Celery "Woodstalk" tie-dye shirt.

For about 15 years, Gil has been coming to Wilmington for games, drawn not really by baseball, but by produce.

Like Harff, he understands his fandom might be a bit much, especially when he describes it to people back home.

"I talk to people about the Blue Rocks games and the celery, tell them that it's great, show them a photo of Mr. Celery and they just look at me like, 'What are you talking about?'" he deadpans.

For Mays, Mr. Celery isn't a gimmick. The mascot is a tradition that he now shares with three generations of his family.

He must be rubbing off on them: "My grandson was all fired up for him and he's only 5."

Yes, he was Mr. Celery

Usually there are a few outgoing sports marketing interns or assistants who fill the role of Mr. Celery each year. But in the age of COVID-19, there's only one this season. And because he's somewhat new, team officials declined to have him speak to a reporter.

But a former Mr. Celery, Mark Bailey, was open to chat. He was 18 and living in Newark when he performed for a few years including in 2010, the season celebrating Mr. Celery's 10th anniversary.

Now living in Alabama and working as a sports agent with 1st Down Sports, Bailey said that back then, the human in the Mr. Celery suit was paid $35 per game.

And yes, sure, it can be embarrassing to run out in front of 4,500 people dressed like a goof and doing a crazy dance.

"But there's a freedom of expression in nobody knowing it's you. There's such an adrenaline rush," Bailey said. "Plus, you have courage at that age."

Bailey, now married with a daughter, still takes pride in seeing Mr. Celery flourish. He'd like to strap on the celery suit again one day if the team would let him, even though he wonders if he still has the moves.

"It was a cult following that has gone mainstream," he said.

We had to ask Bailey if there had been any behind-the-scenes points of intrigue with Mr. Celery that he's seen or heard about.

Did Mr. Celery ever brawl with Rocky Bluewinkle?

Does Mr. Celery have a secret blue cheese addiction?

Maybe he got intimate with a carrot in the locker room?

Not really, Bailey assured. But he said there were three rules he had to follow as Mr. Celery:

He couldn't cross the team logo on the field to taunt the opponents. Climbing on the net behind home plate wasn't allowed. And he was forbidden from thrusting his hips.

Who knew Mr. Celery and Elvis Presley had something in common?

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormierdelawareonline) and Twitter (@ryancormier).

Richard Callery, Delaware ex-chief medical examiner, gets probation

Esteban Parra

The News Journal

Delaware's former chief medical examiner was sentenced to about a year probation Friday for using state workers and equipment to run his private consulting business.

Dr. Richard T. Callery, who headed the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for two decades, also must pay $100,000 in restitution for using the employees and supplies to run a private consulting business that did work in Rhode Island and other states. Callery, 62, spoke for nine minutes during the hearing, first thanking state police and prosecutors for treating him well during the investigation - despite prosecutors having asked that he receive prison time.

He also apologized to his wife and three sons, who were in the courtroom, as well as friends and former employees who were affected by his misconduct.

"I am remorseful," Callery said at his sentencing hearing. "I was sloppy, and I didn't use common sense."

Callery, who was prepared to pay the restitution Friday, was advised by his attorney not to comment following the hearing. But his attorney, Dan Lyons, said "it was a fair sentence."

Callery also will tender his medical license, but the state medical board will decide if he keeps his license, Lyons said.

Over a four-year period ending in December 2013, Callery used several state employees, including an administrative aide, histologist, medical transcriptionist and at least one morgue assistant, as well as his state car, histology slides, histological equipment and paper, prosecutors said.

A state police probe that begun in early 2014 found Callery engaged in a pattern of behavior that "constituted the criminal misuse of state personnel and resources," prosecutor Joseph Grubb wrote in court documents, but poor record-keeping hampered the state's ability to determine the extent of his misdeeds.

Instead, the state found that Callery committed the lesser crime of official misconduct because he illegally "performed official functions in a way intended to benefit his own property or financial interests."

Grubb wrote Callery "failed to properly segregate his personal and professional business."

"Delaware always came second to his private practice," Grubb said during the Friday hearing, in which he asked Superior Court Judge Fred S. Silverman to exceed the sentencing guidelines and imprison Callery. Silverman declined to imprison Callery, saying that if prosecutors wanted him to go to prison they should worked that into the plea agreement or charged him with something else.

Callery lost his $198,500-a-year state job as state probe focused on thefts of painkillers, heroin, cocaine and other illicit substances from the drug laboratory's evidence room. He was not involved in the thefts from the drug lab that has left the state court system reeling.

The state has spent $1.6 million to send drug evidence to an out-of-state lab and prosecutors dropped or reduced charges in 700 cases. Yet because oversight and controls were lacking, the state has been unable to hold anyone directly accountable for the thefts and tampering. Two lab employees were charged with felonies, but pleaded to lesser misdemeanors and had other charges dropped.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.

Prosecutors' sentencing memo:

Callery agrees to repay Delaware $100,000 in plea

Dispute between Callery, others jeopardizes murder case

Callery to plead no contest to official misconduct

Classic cocktails at Greenville's new Copperhead Saloon

Patricia Talorico

The News Journal

Tom Houser takes the craft of a cocktail very seriously at The Copperhead Saloon, his elegant new bar and lounge in Greenville.

To create a $12 specialty drink he calls Ole Smokie, he uses a sprig of rosemary as a brush to first paint the inside of the glass with Laphroaig scotch whisky, giving the cocktail a rich, peaty aroma.

Then, he carefully muddles orange slices and Azucar Morena brown sugar from Mexico and uses an eye dropper for the orange bitters. Tart, sour German cherries are added (never maraschino) along with a healthy 2 1/4-ounce pour of Maker’s Mark bourbon. A pre-smoked ice ball is plopped in the glass.

While some might know the cocktail best as an old-fashioned, it’s the final, modernist twist that Houser adds that brings the wowsa factor.

He finishes the drink not with a swizzle stick, but points a smoking gun in the glass to create puffy white and gray clouds that further enhance the cocktail’s woodsy perfume. Lift the napkin off the top of the glass and it’s like you let a genie out of its bottle.

“And this is why everyone who sees it starts ordering more,” Houser says of the theatrical display.

The Copperhead Saloon is a sophisticated bar, somewhat in the speakeasy-style vein, that quietly opened June 9 in The Powder Mill Square shopping center at 3826 Kennett Pike. Leave the kids at home, this is an adults-only establishment with a taproom license that only allows patrons to enter who are 21 and older.

Neo speakeasies have been a hot trend of the American bar culture for almost 15 years. Some have unmarked doorways, such as Hummingbird to Mars, a speakeasy atop Catherine Rooney’s in Wilmington’s Trolley Square. You need to press the intercom at the 16th Street to enter.

Others are accessed by a password or by way of a secret entrance such as the phone booth door at PDT (Please Don’t Tell), a New York business within a hotdog establishment that was awarded a 2012 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program.

Copperhead Saloon is absent such kitsch, but still has an air of mystery. The simple Copperhead sign outside of the 1,731-square-foot building, the former Dagmar’s Reason spa and beauty salon, does little to explain that inside its doors is a modern day cocktail lounge open daily from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The only real ideas Copperhead borrows from other speakeasy operations are its use of fresh juices and boutique spirits. The menu does include drinks from the pre- and post-Prohibition era such as the Monkey Gland, which sounds like nothing you want to put in your mouth. But don’t let the name steer you away from giving it a try. The obscure $10 drink, made with gin, orange juice, homemade grenadine and absinthe, is delicious. Penicillin, a post-Prohibition cocktail, has blended scotch mixed with lemon, honey syrup and muddled ginger.

Beer and wine are also available. A limited small plates menu has 10 items, which will change frequently, that now include cheese trays and charcuterie boards ($20), flamed goat cheese with olive and sundried tomato tapenade ($14), duck confit with gorgonzola grits and spicy tomato chutney ($18), bacon-wrapped dates ($10) and sweet & spicy bar nuts ($7). Discounts at happy hour, from 3 to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, include $1 off draft beer and wine by the glass and $8 classic cocktails.

Houser, a St. Louis, Missouri, native, attended the University of Oklahoma to study architecture. He soon fell in love with the bar culture and owned and managed beer and wine bars, gastropubs and a brewery in Norman, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City, where he met his fiancee Erin Wallace, who grew up in Delaware and graduated from A.I. du Pont High School. The couple, who now have a 15-month-old son, Conner, moved to Delaware in 2014 to be near Wallace’s family and to open a business.

Houser says he began scouting bar locations in 2014 and eventually settled on the site in Greenville’s Powder Mill Square. “I came in and looked at it and I loved the location. I like the charm of the place and its intimacy.” Houser says the area “really does remind me of St. Louis in some ways.”

Renovations on the former beauty salon began in October. Wallace says she and Houser wanted the decor to feel somewhat like a comfortable, upscale living room. The sunny space is snug with 40 seats, including comfortable, black leather bar stools, some low tables and a few high-tops, along with a faux fireplace.

The beer tap handles are wooden sculptures of animals and figurines that Houser found in stores and websites. Some of the glasses were purchased from thrift stores and estate sales. The bar top is made from reclaimed oak planks, dating back to the 1970s, that were once the building’s flooring.

Pennies decorate the front and back of the bar as well as the restroom floors. It’s one of the few nods to another “speakeasy-style” style bar in the area. Philadelphia’s Hop Sing Laundromat, the four-year-old swanky bar on Race Street known for its meticulously made cocktails, has a vestibule whose floor is coated in pennies.

Houser says he hopes Copperhead, which gets its name from the pennies, will become a traditional neighborhood gathering place with really good drinks and interesting conversation. Building relationships with the clientele is the best part of his job, he says.

“This really is my idea of a cocktail party,” Houser says. “We might not know everyone when they come in, but we’ll know you when you leave.”

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 orptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter@pattytalorico

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: The Copperhead Saloon is a new 40-seat bar and lounge offering classic cocktails (pre- and post Prohibition) as well as beers on tap, wine and a variety of small plates like bacon-wrapped dates ($10) and pork rillete ($16). Leave the kids at home. The business has a taproom license, meaning you must be 21 years or older to enter.

WHERE: Powder Mill Square Shopping Center, 3826 Kennett Pike, Greenville.

WHEN: Open daily from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.

INFORMATION: Call (302) 256-0535 or visit The Copperhead Saloon Facebook page.