Payless Becomes Rite Aid As Signs Change This Week

SEATTLE - Rite Aid signs are scheduled to replace those of Thrifty PayLess starting this week.

Thrifty Payless, formerly the largest drugstore chain in the Seattle area, is being renamed Rite Aid, for the Pennsylvania chain that acquired the PayLess stores in October 1996.

In addition, 10 stores in the Seattle area will be remodeled this year, said Sarah Datz, a Rite Aid spokeswoman, and the company is evaluating sites for new stores.

Datz said Rite Aid would relocate its store at 15th Avenue Northwest and Northwest Market Street in Ballard before its lease is up in October 1999. A new Safeway is slated to go in at that site, which Rite Aid shares with a thrift store.

Rite Aid, the nation's largest drugstore chain, has 151 drugstores under the PayLess name in Washington state. It acquired 1,007 PayLess stores in 10 Western states from Wilsonville, Ore.,-based Thrifty Payless for $2.3 billion in stock and debt.