Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by pseudo3d »

Rite Aid’s stock is now less than a dollar. Will Albertsons try again, or will Rite Aid recover?
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by babs »

Rite Aid needs a new management team. The current team will just run it into BK eventually.
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by storewanderer »

Current management is doing everything they can to make Rite Aid appear weak and drive it into bankruptcy.

Cannot believe the merger got turned down but current management team got to stay.
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: January 6th, 2019, 10:57 am Current management is doing everything they can to make Rite Aid appear weak and drive it into bankruptcy.

Cannot believe the merger got turned down but current management team got to stay.
No management team tries to go bankrupt, even if they're sponging they're sponging every penny they earn for personal bonuses.
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by storewanderer »

Oh I think they are trying. They kept their strongest stores yet they fail to paint any sort of positive picture to Wall Street about the future prospects of the company. The stores are fine; they are stocked well, staffed properly, the Wellness Store Remodeling program is continuing, and they shaved off a significant portion of their debt in an environment where Interest rates are rising and they will have debt coming due in the coming years. The management of Rite Aid desperately wanted that Albertsons merger and when that didn't happen, they needed to go.

Rite Aid's prospects now are exactly the same or better than they were before the Albertsons merger was announced yet the stock is less than half of its value at the time the Albertsons merger was announced. This is a failure of the management team to properly communicate with Wall Street and a lack of effort to drive operating results.
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by storewanderer »

To add to this, one big thing is when Rite Aid sold stores to Walgreens, one of the terms of the transaction was they could join the Walgreens Boots Alliance generic prescription drug buying program. At the time, Rite Aid management said this could get their costs down significantly. I interpreted this as part of the "compensation" for the sale of stores to Walgreens. Otherwise, why would they have included that term in the transaction if they had no intention of executing it? Fast forward to today and Rite Aid management has opted not to go into that agreement. Why didn't they go into that agreement in the first place? You would think that if you have a way to get costs down on something like generic drugs which are a pretty big chunk of their sales, you would exercise that option as soon as possible. But they didn't... because of the pending Albertsons merger (the whole merged Albertsons couldn't have been part of that agreement).
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by Knight »

pseudo3d wrote: January 6th, 2019, 9:22 am Rite Aid’s stock is now less than a dollar. Will Albertsons try again, or will Rite Aid recover?
RIte Aid is in a position it cannot compete with CVS and Walgreen's. I do not know who would want to take on remaining stores and assets now.
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by pseudo3d »

Knight wrote: January 8th, 2019, 7:22 am
pseudo3d wrote: January 6th, 2019, 9:22 am Rite Aid’s stock is now less than a dollar. Will Albertsons try again, or will Rite Aid recover?
RIte Aid is in a position it cannot compete with CVS and Walgreen's. I do not know who would want to take on remaining stores and assets now.
But according to storewanderer, the stores are actually in good condition (if in a reduced capacity). One of the problems with the Albertsons/Rite Aid mergers would be that they wouldn't be able to re-introduce the Rite Aid name to all their stores like they wanted, as that would surely go up against the merger, which means Albertsons stores in Louisiana, Shaw's/Star Market stores in Massachusetts, ACME stores in New Jersey, and Safeway stores in the Washington DC area would be banned from using Rite Aid as it could go up against the merger, and Albertsons wouldn't be able to expand Rite Aid in those markets or the Southeast, where Albertsons lacks stores but Rite Aid sold all theirs to Walgreens. In fact, with the exception of Michigan, there would be no real markets where Rite Aid existed but Albertsons didn't. It would almost make sense if Albertsons would be better off keeping the brand names and a few stand-alone stores but largely gutting the company...
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by reymann »

rite aid's best strategy may be a piecemeal selloff to cvs and walgreens and maybe sell the rights to thrifty ice cream to albertsons or walgreens. they could divest the northwest stores off to cvs easily. the central coast rite aids could easily be sold off to walgreens. other areas could be closed or sold piecemeal. i wish the execs would have not tried to sabotage the chain, the california rite aids have done fairly well since cvs took over longs and thrifty ice cream would be a prime rite aid property albertsons may want.
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Re: Albertsons/Rite Aid Merger is off: What's next

Post by rwsandiego »

pseudo3d wrote: January 8th, 2019, 8:01 am
Knight wrote: January 8th, 2019, 7:22 am
pseudo3d wrote: January 6th, 2019, 9:22 am Rite Aid’s stock is now less than a dollar. Will Albertsons try again, or will Rite Aid recover?
RIte Aid is in a position it cannot compete with CVS and Walgreen's. I do not know who would want to take on remaining stores and assets now.
But according to storewanderer, the stores are actually in good condition (if in a reduced capacity). One of the problems with the Albertsons/Rite Aid mergers would be that they wouldn't be able to re-introduce the Rite Aid name to all their stores like they wanted, as that would surely go up against the merger, which means Albertsons stores in Louisiana, Shaw's/Star Market stores in Massachusetts, ACME stores in New Jersey, and Safeway stores in the Washington DC area would be banned from using Rite Aid as it could go up against the merger, and Albertsons wouldn't be able to expand Rite Aid in those markets or the Southeast, where Albertsons lacks stores but Rite Aid sold all theirs to Walgreens. In fact, with the exception of Michigan, there would be no real markets where Rite Aid existed but Albertsons didn't. It would almost make sense if Albertsons would be better off keeping the brand names and a few stand-alone stores but largely gutting the company...
Albertsons could call them Osco or SavOn
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