As is sometimes the case, comments on a blog post on one of our social media platforms will lead to another blog. Such was the case last Saturday on the blog regarding one of Meadowbrook Mall’s forgotten anchor stores in Murphy’s Mart.

 

Along with the comments of a whole lot of people having no recollection of the story like yours truly, there was a comment from Adam Starkey that I found pretty unique. It was unique in the fact that it did not seem like a possibility, but Starkey’s professional background made me feel pretty confident he was on to something in regards to another Mall store that is in the trash bin of history.

 

Some may recall, some may not remember, and some may not have been born when Meadowbrook Mall was home to a Rite Aid. That, in and of itself, is not unusual.

 

I actually do remember the store. Prior to the Dollar Tree’s brief existence, I went there to load up on candy to be snuck into the former Carmike Cinema location, which was situated where Marshall’s is located today.

 

The Rite Aid was across from it, on the corner where Boardwalk Arcade and Confections was the last business to be situated there before closing in July of 2022. It is now being demolished to make way for Boscov’s.

 

With that bit of background provided, allow me to go back to Starkey’s comment. Part of the comment read “Most people don’t remember it, but just outside of Murphy’s Mart in the mall there was a Rite Aid store without a pharmacy.” That seemed odd, and without Starkey’s pharmacist background, I probably would have dismissed it and moved on.

 

I did not. And I am glad I did.

 

It appears that the Meadowbrook Mall Rite Aid was an anomaly at the least, and a one-of-a-kind at the best. I will get to that shortly.

 

After seeing the comment, a Google search on Rite Aids without a pharmacy went nowhere. So, I quickly went to their Web site and emailed their public relations. I received a response from Tyler Pierre, with Rite Aid Customer Care, and here is a portion of the response.

 

“Unfortunately we do not have a lot of information about this store. I can say that all of our stores did have a pharmacy attached!”

 

End of story? Nope. Instead of dismissing it outright, I figured I would follow up with a few folks on Monday. Not because I did not believe what Mr. Pierre sent me, but with the store opening apparently just as or after the Mall opened in 1982, I imagined the research was quick and that it was determined without not much to go on that no one could remember that being the case. That is an assumption on my part, but it appears to have been a good one.

 

Shortly after Starkey’s comment, Tammie Brown Satterfield commented under Starkey’s post. Turns out her husband, Jim Satterfield, was the manager when the store opened at the mall back in 1982. This, I figured, was a good point of someone who could confirm Starkey’s unique observation.

 

So, I sent her a private message via Facebook. After I did that, I do what I often do on historic matters involving the Meadowbrook Mall, I called Marcello Lalama, the long-time former property manager. His initial reaction was there was a pharmacy, but he questioned himself when he remembered never getting prescriptions there after starting in 1990, even though the store would close a few years later.

 

As we exchanged text messages, I received a response from Mrs. Satterfield. And it was a doozie.

 

She still resides with her husband Jim in Harrison County. According to her, her husband was an assistant manager with the company in Westover before being promoted to manager in Waynesburg, Pa. From there, he had a quick two-month stint as manager at the Rite Aid in the Rosebud Plaza in Clarksburg (now a Walgreen’s). He stayed at Rosebud until the store at the Mall was finished and ready to be stocked and opened for business.

 

At the time, she said her husband managed five clerks until going back into the military in 1984. She said it was the “only one that he ever knew of not to have a pharmacy in it.” Her history on the matter seemed more than strong by even supplying the name of the regional manager and where he lived at the time.

 

I forward the information to Lalama. Now, he too, was bitten by curiosity, and he had a plan to get an answer. Although it is not definitive, it is about as close as you can get.

 

“I called one of the architects from Cafaro (the company that owns the Mall) who was able to pull up some of the old drawings of the original buildings and some of the plans for Rite Aid,” said Lalama. “What he could not find were complete floor plans for Rite Aid.”

 

When he told me that, my heart quickly sunk. Then he added, the “but,” and I knew I was back in business.

 

“He found some of the old mechanical drawings, the plumbing drawings that had sections of the store labeled,” said Lalama. “Nowhere on there was anything labeled pharmacy. He said that would be an odd thing to randomly leave out with everything else labeled.”

 

Lalama said he remembered going back to the back of that store to talk to one of the managers after Satterfield. He said you walked up a few steps to get to it, which made him think about it being the pharmacy area. At the same time, he recollected the area he went into to talk was extremely small and he began to believe he was in an office.

 

“I was certain the area was raised, and I asked my friend at the corporate office to look at that area to see if my thoughts that it may have just been an office was correct,” said Lalama. “I was told the drawings confirmed the area I went into was office space.

 

“It’s not 100 percent, but I’m about as close to 100 percent that this Rite Aid did not have a pharmacy,” Lalama continued. “That’s pretty unique.”

 

I sent all of my new information back to Mr. Pierre with Rite Aid several days ago. Since I imagine this not a pressing issue, I have never heard back from them. Even if I do and they just say it is not the case, I am going to need more than that at this point.

 

For the record, I am going with Adam Starkey, Jim and Tammie Satterfield, and Marcello Lalama. The Meadowbrook Mall Rite Aid Pharmacy was a pharmacy business without a pharmacy.

 

All of us would be glad to have you either prove us right or wrong. Feel free to comment below.

 

Editor's Note: Top three photos of the interior and exterior of various Rite Aid stores from the Rite Aid Facebook page. Bottom photo shows former Meadowbrook Mall Property Manager Marcello Lalama in a Ben Queen Photography photo.