A new Grocery Outlet is about to fill the empty Rite Aid building at 22201 Meridian E. in Graham, with a grand opening set for 7 a.m. on Nov. 19. Workers began stocking shelves and arranging displays this week, and the store has already pulled in more than 300 job applications from people hoping to work there.
The opening date and hiring numbers were detailed in reporting from the Tacoma News Tribune, which has tracked the project since first reporting plans for the Graham store in October 2025. According to the outlet, workers installed exterior signs at the site in September, and a social media post from the store said Monday marked the first day of stocking and “setting the store.”
From Vacant Pharmacy to Grocery Shelves
The building sat empty after its run as a Rite Aid before an LLC affiliated with Dickerhoof Properties of Corvallis, Oregon, purchased it in May 2025. Plans for the Graham site were submitted near the end of July that year, setting the redevelopment in motion. The company behind the purchase owns or manages more than 3 million square feet of retail property across multiple states, the newspaper's report notes.
This isn't Dickerhoof's first Rite Aid conversion in the region. A Grocery Outlet opened last fall in Belfair at another Dickerhoof-affiliated former Rite Aid property. The Graham location marks the grocery chain's second Puget Sound-area store slated to open inside a former Rite Aid, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
More Stores in the Pipeline Around Pierce County
Grocery Outlet isn't stopping at Graham. A third new location planned for the former Big Lots site at 5401 100th St. SW, Suite 102, remains in development, per the same account. And in Lakewood, the city issued a building permit for a separate planned Grocery Outlet store on Sept. 3, with city inspectors expected to check in on various items throughout construction.
That Lakewood project is moving on a longer timeline than Graham's. The applicant's permit coordinator schedule projects an opening in May 2027, putting that store about six months behind the one opening this month in Graham.
