Thrift Drug was a U.S.

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

chain founded in 1935 and based in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. The Company was purchased by

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

in 1968, and was expanded greatly thereafter, serving as the flagship chain of JCPenney's pharmacy group. The chain did not hide its affiliation with JCPenney, as it had JCPenney catalog merchandise pickup centers inside many of its locations, as well as signs advertising "JCPenney Catalog Center". Stores also accepted the JCPenney credit card for purchases. In 1996, JCPenney purchased Eckerd, another pharmacy chain. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) objected to the purchase on

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

grounds, stating that ownership of Eckerd would give JCPenney a dominant position in the drug store business in the states of

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and

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

through its ownership of Thrift Drug, Rite Aids in the Carolinas, and Eckerd. The FTC ultimately approved the transaction, but as a condition of approval, in 1997 JCPenney and Thrift were required to divest 14 Thrift drug stores in Charlotte and 20 Thrift stores in Raleigh-Durham, as well as all 110 Rite Aid locations in the state of North Carolina and that chain's 17 locations in Charleston. As a result, JCPenney divested 164 stores in the Carolinas. The divested stores were purchased by an investment group led by former Thrift Drug executives who left JCPenney after the Eckerd transaction. These stores became the Kerr Drug chain, using the name of a former Carolinas chain acquired by JCPenney in 1995. After acquiring Eckerd, in 1997 JCPenney merged Thrift Drug and all other pharmacy chains into the larger Eckerd chain (later purchased by CVS Pharmacy and Rite Aid). One enduring legacy of Thrift Drug was in the 1977 movie '' Slap Shot'', when a Thrift Drug located in downtown

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is the largest city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Metropolitan statistical area ...

was shown in the background during a shot of downtown Charlestown (the town that Johnstown portrayed in the film), alongside other now-defunct retailers such as Woolworth (which still exists today as Foot Locker but closed their namesake chain in 1997) and competitor Revco (which was later acquired by CVS Pharmacy). Also shown was a location of Thrift Drug's nominal successor (through Eckerd) and fellow Pennsylvania pharmacy, Rite Aid. Due to Rite Aid's connection to Thrift Drug through Eckerd, Rite Aid, as well as CVS which also purchased many Eckerd stores, accept JCPenney credit cards despite having otherwise had no corporate affiliation with JCPenney. Thrift Drug, Inc. remained an active subsidiary of Eckerd and later Rite Aid (owning stores held by the company at its closure), as shown in the latter company's October 2023

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

filings. On May 5, 2025, Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in 2 years, listing assets and liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion. Rite Aid will sell all of its assets as part of its procedure, as it overcomes financial challenges such as debt, increased competition, and inflation, including Thrift Drug.

References

Defunct pharmacies of the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2025 Retail companies disestablished in 1997 Rite Aid JCPenney Retail companies established in 1935 Health care companies based in Pennsylvania {{US-retail-company-stub