Second Dollar General Coming to Manchester!

Manchester's second Dollar General will open in the former Rite Aid Pharmacy on Broad Street! Dollar General will take over the vacant pharmacy later this summer according to signs posted outside the building late Monday. 

Dollar General will open in the former Rite Aid Pharmacy, a building that has remained vacant since Walgreens closed the store last year. The store was a Rite Aid, but was purchased by Walgreens in a deal that saw the majority of Rite Aid stores sold. Some of the acquired stores were converted into Walgreens pharmacy, while others were closed. The Broad Street store was announced to become a Walgreens after the deal was completed. The store's pharmacy was briefly operated as a Walgreens Pharmacy for a few months leading up to the closure. 

Walgreens sought to buy out Rite Aid last year; but the merger failed due to Anti-Trust concerns along with a planned sale of remaining assets to smaller-chain Fred's Drug. Fred's Drug would nearly triple their store count after the deal. Instead Walgreens bought nearly 2,000 Rite Aid locations from the company after a failed merger last year; almost 600 of these stores would be closed due to their proximity to a competing Walgreens. Recently Albertson's announced that they would acquire the remaining Rite Aid company with the much smaller footprint after the Walgreens sale.
Rite Aid had two Manchester locations, the location at 335 Center Street, and a location at 232 Tolland Turnpike (now a Goodwill.) The new Dollar General will be Manchester's second, the first location is on East Center Street. The first location was once a professional building with doctor's offices before being converted to the ever-growing chain of variety stores. The store should open later this summer; construction on the interior is underway.