Fate Acquired by Eckerd Parent organization Rite Aid | Founded 1924 | |
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Defunct 1998 (sold); 2003 (name changed) Products Pharmacy, Cosmetics, Health and Beauty Aids, General Merchandise, Snacks Headquarters Melville, New York, United States | ||
Genovese Drug Stores was a pharmacy chain located in the New York City-Long Island area of the United States, including northern New Jersey, along with Fairfield County, Connecticut and Hartford County, Connecticut. It was acquired by Eckerd in 1998.
Genovese was founded in 1924 by Joseph Genovese, in Astoria, Queens. By 1978, when Genovese died, the chain had grown to 50 locations.
It opened its first Manhattan location in 1993.
At time of its sale in 1998 to JCPenney, the still family-controlled chain was headquartered in Melville, New York and had 141 stores and 5,000 employees. Five years after the acquisition, the Genovese name ceased to exist when all the remaining stores were rebranded as Eckerd. The former Genovese stores that have remained open currently do business as Rite Aid, who bought Eckerd's eastern U.S. operations in 2007 (these locations are distinguishable as having blue signs instead of red signs). One Rite Aid store in Astoria is now a CVS/pharmacy.
Genovese Drug Stores had no connection to the Genovese crime family, one of the "Five Families" of the city's Mafia.