Following Rite Aid’s May 5 bankruptcy and subsequent closure of five stores in Kitsap County, the number of impacted employees and customers is still unknown.

A CVS spokesperson, Kara Page, said the chain is planning to take over the former Bainbridge Island Rite Aid location Sept. 30. In total, the chain plans to operate 49 former Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs locations throughout Washington state.

Page said in July, the chain purchased the prescription files for both the former Rite Aid stores in Silverdale and Poulsbo, which were transferred to the CVS pharmacy inside Target in Silverdale and the Poulsbo CVS.

One of three Pharmacy Guild co-founders and a licensed pharmacist in California, Shane Jerominski, said high stress and low pay for pharmacy technicians can create a stressful work environment.

“It’s so difficult, not just because of the political climate right now, but so many pharmacists and technicians feel like they’re replaceable, and while the working conditions are terrible, they feel like these chains have so much more and more power,” he said.

The Guild sent a letter to CVS leadership May 21, highlighting concerns about the potential loss of jobs due to Rite Aid store closures. Jerominski said the Guild has not received a direct response to their letter from CVS leadership. A CVS spokesperson declined to specify whether the chain has been in contact with the Guild or responded to their concerns.

The Pharmacy Guild currently represents 205 workers at pharmacies across five states. In Washington, The Guild represents 25 pharmacy workers with two Safeway locations in Covington and Maple Valley, and recently received union representation.

Page said team member well-being is important to CVS and it aims to provide a positive and rewarding work environment.

“While most of our workforce is non-union, we have respectful and productive relationships with unions where they represent our colleagues. We respect our workers’ rights to choose whether or not to be represented by a union, while explaining to them how our direct employee-management engagement model works,” she said. “ We do not take any actions that would unlawfully interfere with our colleagues’ legal rights.”

Page said the chain has hired 1,100 former Rite Aid employees in the Pacific Northwest which includes Washington, Oregon and Idaho; the chain doesn’t have hiring numbers by county.

Rite Aid CEO Matt Schroeder, was unavailable for comment following multiple requests for comment about how many Rite Aid employees have been laid off in Kitsap County.

As of Aug. 19, the state Employment Security Department, which oversees worker adjustment and retaining notification (WARN) layoff notices, doesn’t list any new Bartell Drugs or Rite Aid pharmacy WARN notices. Chris Barron, an ESD spokesperson, said despite new state legislation requiring changes to some WARN notices, the new law won’t retroactively be applied to previous layoff notice requirements.

Justin Ausmeier, Bainbridge Island Community Pharmacy manager and owner, shared his perspective as both a long time BI resident and pharmacist on the island.

“I was at Rite Aid, and I had a regional manager who was a friend of mine, and he came to me and said, ‘things are changing and we’ve cut hours, we cut overhead, we cut everything,’ And I remember that change. And it wasn’t just Rite Aid, it was every store,” he said.

Ausmeier said long lines at pharmacies are part of the broader community impact of store closures and Rite Aid closing is a symptom of the industry.

“I love this profession, and I don’t want to see it go down. I want to see it improve. I want to see customer service. I want to see us as a value to the community, and so that’s what I’m hoping the Rite Aid closure brings to people’s eyes, is why it closed,” he said. “I think pharmacy is so valuable to people. You can come in, you can talk to your pharmacist, you don’t have to make an appointment to see your doctor. We can give you advice or send you to your doctor if we feel like that’s what you need to do. But we’re the first point of contact.”

Jerominski said he also believes the community connection between pharmacy staff and patients is important. Some of the impacts of nearby store closures include: higher turnover of pharmacy technicians and having to retrain new technicians, higher workloads of inputting new patient prescription information and an overall high-stress environment, he said.

“CVS has so much power that you feel like you can’t really do anything to combat that. So that’s what we’re trying to do, is kind of level the playing field here by unionizing, ” he said.

Jerominski said he wanted to start a union specifically for pharmacists and technicians so they are more knowledgeable about problems in the industry and support better working conditions.

“I’m hearing from technicians and pharmacists, young and old across the country, new grads with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of student loans who didn’t realize what it was going to be like when they graduated, and pharmacists who just feel like they don’t know if they can make it through another day,” he said. “Technicians want another try to find another career, because even though they might have gone to school for six months or got some kind of certification, they realize the pay is so low, the stress is so high, they don’t know how to do it.”

Per Rite Aid’s website as of Aug. 19, the chain has 110 stores nationwide, with 43 in Washington.