Read's Drug Store was a chain of stores based in Baltimore, Maryland. Read's Drug Store was founded by William Read. He sold it to the Nattans family in 1899. The downtown store was constructed in 1934 by Smith & May, Baltimore architects also responsible for the Bank of America building at 10 Light St. In 1929, one company slogan was "Run Right to Reads." Read's was purchased from the Nattans by Rite Aid in 1983.
Read's Drug Store building in Baltimore; site of 1955 desegregation sit-in
Rite Aid Corporation is an American drugstore chain based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alex Grass under the name Thrift D Discount Center. It is the third-largest drugstore chain in the United States, with over 2,000 stores, and ranked No. 148 in the Fortune 500 in 2022.
A Rite Aid store in Glendale, California in 2023
Eckerd store in Rochester, Pennsylvania, pictured shortly before its conversion into a Rite Aid in August 2007
Interior of a Rite Aid store in San Ramon, California, in March 2017
Rite Aid store in Rose Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia in September 2018, before conversion to a Walgreens