Councilmember Says Sprouts Will Soon Fill the Vacant Rite Aid on Hill Avenue

Sprouts Farmers Market will soon replace the long-vacant former Rite Aid at Hill Avenue in Pasadena, District 2 Councilmember Rick Cole told constituents in his newsletter this week.

Sprouts already operates a store across town, at 39 N. Rosemead Blvd.

Cole raised the store as part of a longer discussion about what a healthy local economy looks like. He wrote that “the deck is often stacked against small local businesses.”

Small businesses struggle to match the cost discipline and scale of chains, he wrote, but recycle more consumer dollars into the local economy, are likelier to hire local people and use local suppliers, and are often more generous to community causes, Cole pointed out.

Local merchants, he wrote, “make a priceless contribution to Pasadena’s unique sense of place.”

Cole named the Pasadena Market, near to Connal’s on Washington Boulevard, as one of his own favorite places to buy groceries, and said he hopes Sprouts can coexist if residents support both.

By his own count, Sprouts has about 500 stores nationwide, against roughly 2,200 for Albertsons and Vons and about 2,700 for Kroger and Ralphs. The real corporate giants, he wrote, are Walmart, Amazon and its Whole Foods chain, and Costco, which he said are taking an ever-growing share of grocery sales.

Sprouts said it opened its 400th store in September 2023 and was aiming to grow about 10 percent a year.

Cole’s second emphasis was regulatory. Pasadena’s zoning code, he wrote, “has grown to 300,000 words,” leaving anyone opening a business to navigate “a blizzard of often obsolete or even absurd rules,” collect numerous permits and pay heavily for the privilege.

Large companies dislike the same rules, he wrote, but either avoid Pasadena or absorb the cost. The city’s zoning code is Title 17 of the municipal code, adopted by the City Council on Jan. 10, 2005 as Ordinance No. 7000 and effective Feb. 26, 2005.

Cole represents District 2 and was elected in 2024 after four decades in public service, including earlier service as a Pasadena councilmember and mayor and as city manager in Azusa, Ventura and Santa Monica. He sits on the council’s Finance and Municipal Services committees.