Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by Knight »

Albertson's acquiring what the remainder of Rite Aid post-Walgreen's is an interesting move. There are areas where a freestanding drugstore can go where a supermarket will be unable to go. Rite Aid's freestanding drugstores double as drugstores and convenience stores.

How does Albertson's acquisition of Rite Aid affect Albertson's and Rite Aid's pharmacy operations going forward? All Albertson's and Rite Aid pharmacies will eventually be one pharmacy network.
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by submariner »

In the realm of legacy branding, with Rite-Aid being sold in chunks, which buyer gets rights to Thrifty, anyways? I don't see if that's actually been answered yet. I honestly doubt the RA banner itself will last to the end of the decade, though. I don't see a lot of brand loyalty towards it.
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: February 20th, 2018, 10:01 pm Walgreens was sold literal garbage and the better assets remained with Rite Aid.
Doesn't seem that way here - just yesterday I spotted two stores with the "Pharmacy now operated by Walgreens" signs. Both on the same road (maybe 3 miles apart) both have the wellness renovation (one just did that last year) and that one was a newly built store just prior to the Wellness starting (replacing an old in line store in that plaza from the late 1970's).

Those are the only two I have seen, but have not been near others recently to check.
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by reymann »

i expect albertsons to retain thrifty ice cream and it could likely replace lucerne ice cream and maybe they tinker with the idea of thrifty ice cream by the scoop at albertsons/safeway stores in future remodels and new builds.
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by pseudo3d »

Well, I don't know personally. The debt load is horrific and cuts further into the hope of new markets, cheaper prices, and the opportunity of another grocery store chain, and I don't know how much they're spending on it. It really sounds like Miller’s getting the family back together and the missing component of what was not there in terms of Safeway.

The problem is that this brings back a lot of memories of American Stores and what went wrong, especially now that they’re going public. Of course, at the same time, they aren’t doing poorly thought out rebrandings or expansions. I just hope they don’t repeat the Sav-on mistake to the pharmacies, it made no sense seeing the Albertsons stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth division being rebranded as “Albertsons Sav-on”. It’s also strange seeing an expansion of the drug division when a lot of the drug selection was cut out under Safeway and Safeway-like product resets.

I would love to see a larger version of the investor presentation mentioned in the Idaho Statesman presentation. It looks like Nevada and Colorado have single-digit numbers but Michigan and Ohio have hundreds. In terms of product mix, I don’t know if the Safeway private label will spread to Rite Aid (and replace theirs) but definitely Signature Care will likely be on the way out. Thrifty Ice Cream will probably end up appearing in the West Coast stores. I could also see Rite Aid-branded pharmacies in Vons, NorCal, Seattle, Portland, Acme, Eastern, and Intermountain.

They have a lot of Rite Aid stores in NYC and Washington DC stores I know...I have a feeling that they’ll be adding Plated meal kits to those stores.
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by CalItalian »

The ice cream counter at Rite Aid is SO MUCH MORE now in many remodeled locations. This location, which my friend works at, did not have an ice cream counter prior to the remodel (which is fantastic). This is one of the highest grossing stores in the entire Rite Aid chain (it's in downtown Beverly Hills). Watch the video of their "Fresh Day Café" in store which includes a self-serve frozen yogurt station (with add your own toppings), coffee & other drinks, quick bites as well as ice cream.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/rite-ai ... 0It8Rsv8Rg
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by CalItalian »

reymann wrote: February 21st, 2018, 5:48 pm i expect albertsons to retain thrifty ice cream and it could likely replace lucerne ice cream and maybe they tinker with the idea of thrifty ice cream by the scoop at albertsons/safeway stores in future remodels and new builds.
My friend is a supervisor and union rep at Rite Aid. This is what she told me about the ice cream. The ice cream is staying and will be expanded into Vons, Albertsons, Safeway and Pavilions locations in California. She couldn't tell me states beyond California. Rite Aid has been marketing Thrifty Ice Cream to other retailers as we had seen in Haggen SoCal, I have seen recently in Jons Fresh Marketplace in Torrance and I've found it at many gas station convenience stores such as Chevron Extra Mile.
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by CalItalian »

cathandler wrote: February 20th, 2018, 8:35 pm
reymann wrote: February 20th, 2018, 6:49 pm that means you will likely start seeing thrifty ice cream at safeway if this occurs.
Hopefully, but from what I've seen of Albertsons, it's more likely you'll see Signature Select ice cream at Rite Aid.
Not in California. We'd burn the stores down. Thrifty Ice Cream is an institution in California.
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by marshd1000 »

I remember that after Albertsons absorbed American Stores, they opened a Sav-On Drug in Boise, which had a deli called J. A.’s Kitchen. I wonder if they would attempt that in some of the Rite Aid stores? Maybe they could take a page from Safeway and call it Signature Cafe and have that kind of a deli offering, Thrifty Ice Cream and Starbucks? As for the markets having Thrifty Ice Cream, when Albertsons first started opening up in store Starbucks, they had scooped ice cream as part of the offering. This was the only place I had seen an in store Starbucks with scooped ice cream. I have also seen some Safeway stores serving gelato. So it would be interesting to see if there is an expansion of Thrifty Ice Cream counters!
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Re: Albertsons to buy (what's left of) RiteAid

Post by pseudo3d »

marshd1000 wrote: February 21st, 2018, 8:25 pm I remember that after Albertsons absorbed American Stores, they opened a Sav-On Drug in Boise, which had a deli called J. A.’s Kitchen. I wonder if they would attempt that in some of the Rite Aid stores? Maybe they could take a page from Safeway and call it Signature Cafe and have that kind of a deli offering, Thrifty Ice Cream and Starbucks? As for the markets having Thrifty Ice Cream, when Albertsons first started opening up in store Starbucks, they had scooped ice cream as part of the offering. This was the only place I had seen an in store Starbucks with scooped ice cream. I have also seen some Safeway stores serving gelato. So it would be interesting to see if there is an expansion of Thrifty Ice Cream counters!
From reading old articles, JA's Kitchen was more of "nicer" prepared foods (restaurant quality) deli in a handful of stores.
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