Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

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storewanderer
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Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

Post by storewanderer »

What is this? I guess they announced closure of 40 of their 650 stores in December 2017? This seems pretty significant... This chain thinks they can take on a bunch of Rite Aids yet they are closing a lot of stores of their own in the past couple months... what is this? You would think they would wait to have the Rite Aids so they could consolidate some stores... maybe they do not even have the money to wait six months to do that?

Announced 01/30/2017:
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/0 ... _clos.html
5 Alabama Stores
http://www.andalusiastarnews.com/2017/0 ... -february/ --photo of Andalusia, AL

http://www.glasgowdailytimes.com/news/f ... 30593.html
Cave City
Also in this article they blame operating results being soft on, among other things, "transitioning several key categories to a third party distributor." -- What??? Why would they be moving to third party distributors when they are about to undertake an expansion buying all these Rite Aids?

http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/ ... 06279.html --includes interior photo
Lake Wylie
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Fred's Stores in South Carolina Closing

Post by Knight »

South Carolina stores closing:
  • Fred's #1027, Abbeville Shopping Center, 763 Highway 28 Bypass, Abbeville, South Carolina 29620-5546 (Fred's Pharmacy #1028 has closed.)
  • Fred's #2078, 198 Stuckey Street, Johnsonville, South Carolina 29555-6446 (Fred's Pharmacy #2079 has closed.)
  • Fred's #2208, 200 Spartanburg Highway, Lyman, South Carolina 29365-1808 (Fred's Pharmacy #2209 has closed.)
  • Fred's #2505, 1180 Five Chop Road, Orangeburg, South Carolina 29115-7049 (Fred's Pharmacy #2506 has closed.)
  • Fred's #2783, 1876 East Blackstock Road, Roebuck, South Carolina 29376-2700 (Fred's Pharmacy #2784 has closed.)
  • Fred's #2868, 437 North Main Street, Saluda, South Carolina 29138-1141 (Fred's Pharmacy #2869 has closed.)
First, I would note each location with both store and pharmacy has two separate store numbers, one for the store and the other for pharmacy, in consecutive order.

Second, I would be concerned about acquiring Rite Aid stores from the divestiture of Walgreen's acquiring Rite Aid if I am closing pharmacy stores.
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Re: Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

Post by buckguy »

They have an odd business model. They're mostly in small markets but they're also in some suburban areas--in the Atlanta area, they're in relatively not well-off places that either have little retail (Riverdale) or quite a bit (Conyers).

In terms of the small rural markets, do they concentrate on places without a WalMart or where WalMart has exited? Something like that would explain picking Riverdale, but not Conyers. Are they basically a dollar store with a pharmacy? About 40% of their stores are franchises-how are those placed?

On the face of it, they seem not only like a really poor candidate to run Rite Aid stores in California, but even to make a go of those crappy old Eckerd locations in their region.
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Re: Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

Post by pseudo3d »

I don't think Fred's is interested in the Rite Aid stores anymore. It's still a theory that cooler heads prevailed at Fred's and figured out they could barely sustain their own stores let alone take on a bunch of castoffs. Unfortunately, it looks like Rite Aid has been forced into a "destiny bond" and they're now getting rid of stores the old fashioned way (closing them!), with the end result being that the remaining Rite Aid stores will be reflagged as Walgreens.
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Re: Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

Post by wnetmacman »

buckguy wrote:They have an odd business model. They're mostly in small markets but they're also in some suburban areas--in the Atlanta area, they're in relatively not well-off places that either have little retail (Riverdale) or quite a bit (Conyers).

In terms of the small rural markets, do they concentrate on places without a WalMart or where WalMart has exited? Something like that would explain picking Riverdale, but not Conyers. Are they basically a dollar store with a pharmacy? About 40% of their stores are franchises-how are those placed?

On the face of it, they seem not only like a really poor candidate to run Rite Aid stores in California, but even to make a go of those crappy old Eckerd locations in their region.
Fred's Super Dollar is a small town store, similar to Shopko Hometown. Not all of the Fred's stores have pharmacies (I live near two that do not), and only a very small handful, far less than 40%, are still franchise units. They are inconsistent in their location strategy, though it does indeed include towns that don't have or have lost their Walmart. Yes, they are basically a large dollar store with a pharmacy, and usually it's a limited pharmacy at that. They have pharmacy experience, but it just isn't enough to take over twice your current capability. I'm really hoping the SEC's delay in this is that they see that Walgreens took the 'Haggen Plan' to divest these stores, and that they want to avoid that at all costs.
pseudo3d wrote:I don't think Fred's is interested in the Rite Aid stores anymore. It's still a theory that cooler heads prevailed at Fred's and figured out they could barely sustain their own stores let alone take on a bunch of castoffs. Unfortunately, it looks like Rite Aid has been forced into a "destiny bond" and they're now getting rid of stores the old fashioned way (closing them!), with the end result being that the remaining Rite Aid stores will be reflagged as Walgreens.
Closing a handful of stores (5 in Shreveport) isn't enough to say that they have settled. I think Fred's still thinks they're getting the stores.
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Re: Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
buckguy wrote:They have an odd business model. They're mostly in small markets but they're also in some suburban areas--in the Atlanta area, they're in relatively not well-off places that either have little retail (Riverdale) or quite a bit (Conyers).

In terms of the small rural markets, do they concentrate on places without a WalMart or where WalMart has exited? Something like that would explain picking Riverdale, but not Conyers. Are they basically a dollar store with a pharmacy? About 40% of their stores are franchises-how are those placed?

On the face of it, they seem not only like a really poor candidate to run Rite Aid stores in California, but even to make a go of those crappy old Eckerd locations in their region.
Fred's Super Dollar is a small town store, similar to Shopko Hometown. Not all of the Fred's stores have pharmacies (I live near two that do not), and only a very small handful, far less than 40%, are still franchise units. They are inconsistent in their location strategy, though it does indeed include towns that don't have or have lost their Walmart. Yes, they are basically a large dollar store with a pharmacy, and usually it's a limited pharmacy at that. They have pharmacy experience, but it just isn't enough to take over twice your current capability. I'm really hoping the SEC's delay in this is that they see that Walgreens took the 'Haggen Plan' to divest these stores, and that they want to avoid that at all costs.
pseudo3d wrote:I don't think Fred's is interested in the Rite Aid stores anymore. It's still a theory that cooler heads prevailed at Fred's and figured out they could barely sustain their own stores let alone take on a bunch of castoffs. Unfortunately, it looks like Rite Aid has been forced into a "destiny bond" and they're now getting rid of stores the old fashioned way (closing them!), with the end result being that the remaining Rite Aid stores will be reflagged as Walgreens.
Closing a handful of stores (5 in Shreveport) isn't enough to say that they have settled. I think Fred's still thinks they're getting the stores.
Oh no, Walgreens and Rite Aid have far from settled. It's not like they would suddenly close 500-800 conflicting pharmacies and conveniently decide that they don't need to divest. I'd expect that Rite Aid closures will continue in Louisiana and beyond over the next several months.
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Re: Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

Post by wnetmacman »

You can also add LaPlace, Louisiana to this list:

Fred’s closing its LaPlace doors Feb. 19

This one was in an old shopping center that, when built, was Woolco, Delchamps and K&B, all of which had moved out long, long ago (the Kmart in LaPlace moved to the opposite end of town after Walmart came). Fred's filled the K&B spot.

I haven't heard of any others in Louisiana yet, but I'm looking now to check.
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Re: Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

Post by Knight »

buckguy wrote:They have an odd business model. They're mostly in small markets but they're also in some suburban areas--in the Atlanta area, they're in relatively not well-off places that either have little retail (Riverdale) or quite a bit (Conyers).

In terms of the small rural markets, do they concentrate on places without a WalMart or where WalMart has exited? Something like that would explain picking Riverdale, but not Conyers. Are they basically a dollar store with a pharmacy? About 40% of their stores are franchises-how are those placed?

On the face of it, they seem not only like a really poor candidate to run Rite Aid stores in California, but even to make a go of those crappy old Eckerd locations in their region.
I have noticed Fred's stores to be in trade areas where Walmart is not present. Fred's is positioned as a dollar store or a variety store. If a dollar store, Fred's draw would be its pharamcy.
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Re: Fred's store closure thread- 40 store closures announced 12/2017

Post by Knight »

pseudo3d wrote:I don't think Fred's is interested in the Rite Aid stores anymore. It's still a theory that cooler heads prevailed at Fred's and figured out they could barely sustain their own stores let alone take on a bunch of castoffs. Unfortunately, it looks like Rite Aid has been forced into a "destiny bond" and they're now getting rid of stores the old fashioned way (closing them!), with the end result being that the remaining Rite Aid stores will be reflagged as Walgreens.
Fred's and Rite Aid are two troubled banners. Rite Aid is being acquired. Fred's is closing stores while being somewhere in the process of being Haggen's of retail pharmacy.
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