Former Rite Aid pharmacist aims to bring independent pharmacy to Coronado

CORONADO, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) -- Rite Aid has filed for bankruptcy a second time in two years, shutting down all remaining stores.

The Rite Aid on Orange Avenue in Coronado closed down unexpectedly on July 31, 2024, according to Arash Kohan, who was a pharmacist there since 2010.

“Coronado is a very unique place, it has a very small town, hometown feel to it, everybody knows everybody," Kohan said. "You know your patients, you know your providers, your doctors, we roughly did on average roughly 2,000 prescriptions in a week so we were pretty rooted part of the community, especially during those 15 years we got to know a lot of my customers. We knew their families, they knew our families."

Kohan said that when Rite Aid closed, CVS Pharmacy bought the patients' files.

Rite Aid's website reads, "All Rite Aid stores have now closed. We thank our loyal customers for their many years of support."

It then lets customers put in their zip codes to show where their prescriptions have been transferred to, for many residents on Coronado, there's were transferred to the downtown location, or an Imperial Beach location.

“Our population is mostly elderly so they don’t have the means to kind of go off the island to get their medication, a majority of them transferred their medication across the street to Walgreens, everyone was caught flat footed, including them, their volume tripled overnight," Kohan added.

When the closure happened, Kohan decided to look into starting his own independent pharmacy on Coronado, and now he's got a sign out front.

“This is Crown Coast Pharmacy, hopefully going to open soon and help the community with their prescription needs," Kohan said, pointing to a blue and white sign over the glass of a former wine bar on Orange Avenue, which is just one block away from the Rite Aid where he worked for 15 years.

Kohan said the closure is indicative of the current pharmaceutical climate.

"It’s pretty dismal, it's hard to exist as an independent pharmacy and even the larger chains are having a hard time," he said. "That’s because the reimbursement rates are low, sometimes negative, and the cost of drugs are high it’s a really bad combination, but there’s a bill on the governor’s desk right now and if it goes into law it will address some of these high drug prices.”

Crown Coast Pharmacy is still waiting on a few permits, but is aiming to open by the end of the year.

The day after the Rite Aid Closure, Kohan started a GoFundMe raising money to help bring the pharmacy to life, and it's raised more than $10,000.