NEWPORT — Next month, Sugar River Pharmacy plans to relocate to the former Rite Aid store at the corner of Main and Elm streets.
The move was prompted by growth of the business, which draws customers from Claremont to New London, said Tom Wilmot, who co-owns the independent pharmacy with Chad Beane.
“We are a little bit in no man’s land and there are a lot of people in the surrounding towns who think it is worthwhile to make the trip here,” Wilmot said.
The new space will be 5,000 square feet, double the size of the space they are in now in the nearby Shaw’s Plaza, said Wilmot. When the pharmacy opened in 2009 in a different storefront in the plaza, it occupied about 1,200 square feet.
The former Rite Aid store is 10,000 square feet, Wilmot said. Once renovations are complete, they will look to lease the other half.
Rite Aid closed all of its stores last year. In the Upper Valley, the Bethel, Claremont, Randolph and Windsor Rite Aid locations remain vacant. Rite Aid’s closure left Bethel and Windsor without pharmacies. The former Rite Aid in the Powerhouse Plaza in West Lebanon is being used as a sorting site for the Five Colleges Book Sale this year.
The Rite Aid building in Newport sits on 1.6 acres and was assessed at $2.3 million in 2025, according to Newport’s online assessing records.
Granite State Pharmacy LLC, co-owned by Wilmot and Beane, purchased the property for $1.9 million in September, according to town records.
Sugar River will continue to carry items such as over-the-counter medications and some gifts, but won’t be adding foodstuffs, he said.
“We will be carrying more of what we already have,” Wilmot said.
He does not see large chain pharmacies such as CVS — which has locations in Claremont, West Lebanon and Hanover — as their strongest competitors, he said.
“Our competition is mandatory mail order,” Wilmot said. “People with PBMs (or pharmacy benefit managers) that force them into mailing for their prescriptions.”
PBMs act as third-party administrators who manage prescription drug benefits for insurers, employers and government plans.
