BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – Rite Aid, the 60-year-old pharmacy chain that operated more than 2,300 stores nationwide as recently as 2023, has been gone for a year, wiped out by last year’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the acquisition of many of its assets by CVS and others.
What remains are its physical buildings, at least 1,200 of them, from Pennsylvania to California. For the past year, across the country, all sorts of businesses have been acquiring and transforming those vacant retail spaces.
One of the latest will be especially noteworthy because it’s right here in Bakersfield.
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The family of Rupinder Jhaj was already well established in the retail, fueling and fast food businesses when it opened its first Countryside Market in 2005. Twenty-one years later, it is embarking on Countryside Market number seven and some differences will be evident.
For starters, it will be taking over the Rite Aid pharmacy location at Calloway and Brimhall roads in west Bakersfield, a lively intersection that sees 60,000 vehicles a day. This will be the first Countryside that is not new construction, and it will be the largest one yet.
The building’s exterior will undergo a complete transformation, and more than a third of the building’s 16,000 square foot interior space will be given over to lessees.
Rick Jhaj of Countryside Markets said the company will have the best of old and new in an evolving business.
“We want it to be different than anything else,” he said. “We want it to be a place where, not only do you have the convenience of everything you need, but at the same time a place where you’d maybe come to get some ice cream, or maybe come in and have your meat, like a butcher shop. Even provide a delicatessen for you.”
This Countryside, like all of them, will have a fueling station out in front, Shell, in this case. But gas stations have evolved from purely utilitarian stops into curated destinations.
This shift, which accelerated dramatically in the 2010s, focuses on elevated food service, high-quality products, locally produced products where possible and a pleasant, “boutique” atmosphere rather than just quick-stop convenience.
“Right now we’re going through design plans, we’re going through some envisioning of how this project will end up,” Jhaj said. “We’re going to have a whole facelift. The building is going to look totally different from the exterior.”
Jhaj said he’s hoping to open Countryside number seven in about a year.
With several former Rite Aid locations still vacant and available around Kern County, we asked Jhaj’s sister and business partner, Raji Brar, if Countryside might consider expanding into those buildings.
Way premature, she told 17 News, but not out of the question.
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