Zombie Rite Aids | Morning Newsletter

Welcome to what’s expected to be a rainy, cloudy Monday, Philly.

Rite Aid has closed more than 70 stores in the area since 2022, and even more before that. Our lead story today details the efforts to resurrect them.

And City Council’s vote to green-light the 76ers’ arena plan revealed new power dynamics and reaffirmed old truths. Here’s what to know today.

— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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Dozens of Rite Aids have shuttered across the Philadelphia region within the past three years, from suburban shopping centers to city blocks. The shift has come as the Navy Yard-based chain entered and then emerged from bankruptcy.

Efforts to revive these so-called Rite Aid zombies range from a plasma donation site in Cinnaminson, to a Temple University medical center, to that specter of abandoned storefronts everywhere, Spirit Halloween, at 10th and Market Streets.

Meanwhile, for the 100 or so local Rite Aids that remain open, customers are dismayed to find the store they once relied on for prescriptions, care supplies, and shelf-stable foods looking like a shell of itself, with empty shelves and products locked in plastic cases.

Biz reporters Erin McCarthy and Ariana Perez-Castells dig into what’s become of Rite Aid’s closed Philly-area locations. While you’re reading, check out our interactive map to see the state of your neighborhood’s stores.

City Council’s preliminary vote last week to advance the Sixers’ $1.3 billion Market East arena project was Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s first legislative slam dunk since taking office — with it a slate of political winners and losers was revealed.

🏀 Full-court press: Labor unions led by the powerful and deep-pocketed Philadelphia Building Trades and Construction Council maintained their wide influence after lobbying hard for the proposal.

🏀 Missed shot: Comcast, the Center City-headquartered corporation that owns the Sixers’ current home court, did not prove powerful enough to convince the mayor or Council members to reject the team’s bid.

🏀 Jump ball: While they all ultimately opposed the project, members of a would-be progressive caucus within Council took different approaches during negotiations with the team, indicating division in their ranks.

City Hall reporters Sean Collins Walsh and Anna Orso explain what else the results of the arena vote reveals about local politics in Philadelphia.

P.S. On the rebound: The Sixers have tried — and failed — many times before to build an arena. See the timeline of the team’s decades-long search for its own home.

Philadelphia imports more fresh fruit than any other U.S. port, according to S&P Global data. Where does most of our fruit come from?

A) Costa Rica

B) Panama

C) Guatemala

D) Chile

Think you know? Check your answer.

☃️ Visiting: These Philadelphia bars and restaurants that have decked their halls for the holidays.

🦅 Peeping: Tyler, the Creator’s new NFL collaboration, featuring plenty of throwback Eagles gear.

🎁 Hacking: Our holiday shopping to spend less and save more.

👐 Supporting: Doylestown’s free Silverman Health Clinic and immigrant services org VietLead.

Hint: University of Pennsylvania alum and EGOT winner

DJ GLEN HONE

Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Beverly Trosley, who solved Sunday’s anagram: Joe Frazier. City Council approved a resolution to save the legendary boxer’s crumbling North Philadelphia gym. But it might not be enough.

📬 Think back to the night that changed your life that could only happen in Philly, a true example of the Philly spirit, the time you finally felt like you belonged in Philly if you’re not a lifer, something that made you fall in love with Philly all over again — or proud to be from here if you are. Then email it to us for a chance to be featured in the Monday edition of this newsletter.

This “only in Philly” story comes from reader P. Richard Grove, who describes a lifetime of appreciating the city’s many quirks:

I was ten years old in 1949 when I first experienced, and fell in love with, Philadelphia! I came to visit my Uncle Raymond who was the manager of the Woolworth store on Chestnut Street, next to the building that housed the WCAU TV studios. We rode the Frankford El into Center City from Northeast Philadelphia where all the rowhouses were attached and looked alike, a strange sight to me. I stood in front of the open door on the lead car and felt the cool air of the underground passage, my first train ride!

At the Woolworth store, we rode the freight elevator. Then it was back to the store to go behind the candy counter and pick what I wanted as a treat. This trip made me a Philadelphia fan for life!

Newly wed in 1961, I returned to Philadelphia as a graduate student and lived in Mount Airy. On our first night in Philadelphia, we decided to go into Center City for dinner. Not knowing where we were going, we drove down Germantown Avenue until we came to the bright lights and large department stores at Chelten Avenue and thought we were in Downtown Philadelphia. Little did we know!

After graduation, my career took me to Swampoodle, Strawberry Mansion, Germantown, and East Falls, ending up in Amish Country in the northwest corner of Chester County. Retirement beckoned us back to a condo in Center City where we enjoy history, entertainment, restaurants, free transportation, convenient medical care, and grocery shopping. We live a pretty sweet life here in the city we love at age 85. Thank you, Philadelphia!

👋 Have a great Monday, all. I’ll see you back here tomorrow morning, bright and early.

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