Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

[Retailuser]

1157 stores now less and less. How many more will close?

[storewanderer]

1157 stores now less and less. How many more will close?

1,757 stores as of today on their store locator. Excludes Bartell.

[Retailuser]

How many bartells are there?
And does anyone think that the Huntington Beach location is going to close? I used to goto that for items since it was close to my house when I lived in Huntington Beach.

[storewanderer]

Only 10 new closures released today but 5 are in SoCal. Lakewood, San Diego (Lake Murray), Needles, North Hollywood, and Fontana.

Needles is an unfortunate closure. Bashas left that shopping center during bankruptcy, 99 Cents Only moved in and was out of business after a few years. Not sure what the issue in that town is and why it cannot hold on to stores. The Rite Aid did very little business there and I am surprised it was open this long. It was a similar store to the one that closed on Sunrise in Citrus Heights. Large for a Thrifty. Ra1 decor full remodel including floor in mid 00s.

There is a definite pattern with these closures to remove Rite Aid from remote locations. Historically they never closed in remote locations. What changed?

Also the next nearest pharmacy to Needles is a Wal Mart in Fort Mohave, AZ about 13 miles away. There is no pharmacy in CA to sell the prescriptions to in Needles. So I guess prescriptions can be sold across state lines? Not sure I've seen that before.

[jamcool]

Only 10 new closures released today but 5 are in SoCal. Lakewood, San Diego (Lake Murray), Needles, North Hollywood, and Fontana.

Needles is an unfortunate closure. Bashas left that shopping center during bankruptcy, 99 Cents Only moved in and was out of business after a few years. Not sure what the issue in that town is and why it cannot hold on to stores. The Rite Aid did very little business there and I am surprised it was open this long. It was a similar store to the one that closed on Sunrise in Citrus Heights. Large for a Thrifty. Ra1 decor full remodel including floor in mid 00s.

There is a definite pattern with these closures to remove Rite Aid from remote locations. Historically they never closed in remote locations. What changed?

Also the next nearest pharmacy to Needles is a Wal Mart in Fort Mohave, AZ about 13 miles away. There is no pharmacy in CA to sell the prescriptions to in Needles. So I guess prescriptions can be sold across state lines? Not sure I've seen that before.

Either the folks in Needles go south to Blythe ( where there is an Albertsons and a Rite Aid) or up to Ft Mohave or Bullhead City

[norcalriteaidclerk]

Only 10 new closures released today but 5 are in SoCal. Lakewood, San Diego (Lake Murray), Needles, North Hollywood, and Fontana.

Needles is an unfortunate closure. Bashas left that shopping center during bankruptcy, 99 Cents Only moved in and was out of business after a few years. Not sure what the issue in that town is and why it cannot hold on to stores. The Rite Aid did very little business there and I am surprised it was open this long. It was a similar store to the one that closed on Sunrise in Citrus Heights. Large for a Thrifty. Ra1 decor full remodel including floor in mid 00s.

There is a definite pattern with these closures to remove Rite Aid from remote locations. Historically they never closed in remote locations. What changed?

Also the next nearest pharmacy to Needles is a Wal Mart in Fort Mohave, AZ about 13 miles away. There is no pharmacy in CA to sell the prescriptions to in Needles. So I guess prescriptions can be sold across state lines? Not sure I've seen that before.

Either the folks in Needles go south to Blythe ( where there is an Albertsons and a Rite Aid) or up to Ft Mohave or Bullhead City

Blythe has a Rite Aid(Customer World build replacing a former Payless)and at least one independent.The Albertsons doesn't have a pharmacy presumably because it shared a center with that Payless.I believe both competitors have locations in Bullhead City and/or Fort Mohave.

Needles does have a Dollar General that opened within the past decade.I wonder if that stole front-end sales from the closing RAD.

The Fontana Sierra closure doesn't strike me as surprising.This aging former Thrifty shares a 1963-vintage center(according to Loopnet)with a recently closed Staters and only got a decor repaint in the early-2000's which sounds a lot like my previous location(the aforementioned 5409 Sunrise,of course 7900 Arcadia had RA-1 format and decor to the very end).Fontana previously lost another former Thrifty a couple years back(a late-1970's build at 16910 Foothill which is now a WSS shoe store)but will have two RAD locations remaining after this closure(a later former Thrifty at 11673 Cherry in the middle of a 1980's subdivision as well as a Customer World infill build on Baseline).

11350 Victory in North Hollywood is a Customer World-era relocation of the 1952-era Laurel Canyon Thrifty(now The 99 Store)though in a refurbished older building that most certainly was something else before based on its pylon sign.There will be one location left at 12511 Magnolia which I suspect was a former supermarket before Thrifty opened some time in the 1980's.

Outside of California other closures include two in northeastern Ohio,two in Brooklyn(one being the last NYC location that is 24-hours to any extent),and yet one more in its home state of Pennsylvania.

[storewanderer]

Only 10 new closures released today but 5 are in SoCal. Lakewood, San Diego (Lake Murray), Needles, North Hollywood, and Fontana.

Needles is an unfortunate closure. Bashas left that shopping center during bankruptcy, 99 Cents Only moved in and was out of business after a few years. Not sure what the issue in that town is and why it cannot hold on to stores. The Rite Aid did very little business there and I am surprised it was open this long. It was a similar store to the one that closed on Sunrise in Citrus Heights. Large for a Thrifty. Ra1 decor full remodel including floor in mid 00s.

There is a definite pattern with these closures to remove Rite Aid from remote locations. Historically they never closed in remote locations. What changed?

Also the next nearest pharmacy to Needles is a Wal Mart in Fort Mohave, AZ about 13 miles away. There is no pharmacy in CA to sell the prescriptions to in Needles. So I guess prescriptions can be sold across state lines? Not sure I've seen that before.

Either the folks in Needles go south to Blythe ( where there is an Albertsons and a Rite Aid) or up to Ft Mohave or Bullhead City

Blythe is like 1.5 hours drive from Needles vs. the 20 minutes for Fort Mohave (where you have a Wal Mart Supercenter, a giant Smiths, and a large Safeway) but I guess if they have to stay in CA for some reason that may be what they do.

I don't know what the issue with Needles is. When I was there when Bashas was open, the Bashas seemed like a typical Bashas. A drab outdated store but it was a store and it was well staffed and seemed to have traffic. More traffic than I saw at any of the still open Bashas in Phoenix suburbs I went to a couple months ago. Perimeter was lackluster/looked like a low volume store. I think the people shopping there were not buying many items. Bashas had operations in Bullhead City as I recall (a Food City) and closed so I think the Needles closure may have been logistical, also being the only CA Store probably was a problem due to the different laws, tax filings, labor rules, etc. and cost of all of that for just one single store. If they had a few CA Stores it could spread those costs out over more stores. Also I think they may supply some independents in CA.

The Rite Aid had traffic back then too. But once Bashas closed, the shopping center just died off. I was never there when 99 Only was open, as it wasn't open long, but after 99 Only closed, that shopping center including the Rite Aid just turned into total dead zone.

[storewanderer]

Blythe has a Rite Aid(Customer World build replacing a former Payless)and at least one independent.The Albertsons doesn't have a pharmacy presumably because it shared a center with that Payless.I believe both competitors have locations in Bullhead City and/or Fort Mohave.

Needles does have a Dollar General that opened within the past decade.I wonder if that stole front-end sales from the closing RAD.

The Fontana Sierra closure doesn't strike me as surprising.This aging former Thrifty shares a 1963-vintage center(according to Loopnet)with a recently closed Staters and only got a decor repaint in the early-2000's which sounds a lot like my previous location(the aforementioned 5409 Sunrise,of course 7900 Arcadia had RA-1 format and decor to the very end).Fontana previously lost another former Thrifty a couple years back(a late-1970's build at 16910 Foothill which is now a WSS shoe store)but will have two RAD locations remaining after this closure(a later former Thrifty at 11673 Cherry in the middle of a 1980's subdivision as well as a Customer World infill build on Baseline).

Dollar General definitely would have hurt the Rite Aid and likely had a major impact on 99 Only there. The lack of a Wellness Remodel on the Needles Rite Aid tells me the store has had a performance problem for quite some time. The other thing I have heard that has doomed a lot of these remote Rite Aids is having to pay very high pay/incentives to pharmacists to go and take positions in those stores in the past couple years. Also that many of these pharmacies still operate limited hours (like Susanville, Truckee, and many OR closures that still only ran pharmacy M-F like 9-6 right until the stores closed). Basically they were so generous that it messed up the store profitability. I suspect if they had more front end sales it wouldn't have been as big of a deal but thanks to the prior CEO dumping so much inventory and what that did to front end sales, plus pharmacies not being open the hours customers demand/causing customers to leave since Wal Mart, Safeway, and even CVS can open the pharmacies longer hours, suddenly paying a pharmacist $50k a year more than budget after giving them a larger than usual wage, sign on bonus, and housing reimbursement, really does mess up the store's profitability.

It is funny you posted about them going after RA1 decor stores for closure and I said I don't think so. Then today we get two more RA1 decor stores closing... well at least 2... I'm not sure if any of the East closures had that decor too...

[retailfanmitchell019]

I don't know what the issue with Needles is. When I was there when Bashas was open, the Bashas seemed like a typical Bashas. A drab outdated store but it was a store and it was well staffed and seemed to have traffic. More traffic than I saw at any of the still open Bashas in Phoenix suburbs I went to a couple months ago. Perimeter was lackluster/looked like a low volume store. I think the people shopping there were not buying many items. Bashas had operations in Bullhead City as I recall (a Food City) and closed so I think the Needles closure may have been logistical, also being the only CA Store probably was a problem due to the different laws, tax filings, labor rules, etc. and cost of all of that for just one single store. If they had a few CA Stores it could spread those costs out over more stores. Also I think they may supply some independents in CA.

The Rite Aid had traffic back then too. But once Bashas closed, the shopping center just died off. I was never there when 99 Only was open, as it wasn't open long, but after 99 Only closed, that shopping center including the Rite Aid just turned into total dead zone.

The economy in Needles has been depressed- other than being a railroad town (BNSF), its economy is dependent on travel-related services (people driving to and from SoCal). Much of the population is retired folk.

Bashas did plan to close its Needles store in 2010 (during the bankruptcy), but a discount on utility bills from the city council kept the store open for another 4 years.

https://mojaveproject.org/dispatches-it ... mage-done/

Before Bashas, Needles had a single grocery store, owned by the Claypool family of Needles, who sold the store to AJ Bayless in 1983.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/need ... 139447518/

Bayless closed its Needles store in 1989, before Bashas opened. The Rite Aid was originally a Thrifty:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/need ... 139447499/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/need ... 139447506/

[storewanderer]

I don't know what the issue with Needles is. When I was there when Bashas was open, the Bashas seemed like a typical Bashas. A drab outdated store but it was a store and it was well staffed and seemed to have traffic. More traffic than I saw at any of the still open Bashas in Phoenix suburbs I went to a couple months ago. Perimeter was lackluster/looked like a low volume store. I think the people shopping there were not buying many items. Bashas had operations in Bullhead City as I recall (a Food City) and closed so I think the Needles closure may have been logistical, also being the only CA Store probably was a problem due to the different laws, tax filings, labor rules, etc. and cost of all of that for just one single store. If they had a few CA Stores it could spread those costs out over more stores. Also I think they may supply some independents in CA.

The Rite Aid had traffic back then too. But once Bashas closed, the shopping center just died off. I was never there when 99 Only was open, as it wasn't open long, but after 99 Only closed, that shopping center including the Rite Aid just turned into total dead zone.

The economy in Needles has been depressed- other than being a railroad town (BNSF), its economy is dependent on travel-related services (people driving to and from SoCal). Much of the population is retired folk.

Bashas did plan to close its Needles store in 2010 (during the bankruptcy), but a discount on utility bills from the city council kept the store open for another 4 years.

https://mojaveproject.org/dispatches-it ... mage-done/

Before Bashas, Needles had a single grocery store, owned by the Claypool family of Needles, who sold the store to AJ Bayless in 1983.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/need ... 139447518/

Bayless closed its Needles store in 1989, before Bashas opened. The Rite Aid was originally a Thrifty:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/need ... 139447499/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/need ... 139447506/

And back in the 80's and early 90's, Thrifty had stores in Bullhead City, Kingman, etc. At this point Needles was a remote island for Rite Aid. There was also a Payless in Bullhead City which went to Sav-On long before the Rite Aid merger (still open as CVS).

I did not know the history there of Bayless in Needles.

Also I see that shopping center had a Sprouse Reitz (was like a Dollar General but food was limited to candy/snacks/soda and the place was expensive- they were in all the rural NV towns) and Beno's which was some kind of clothing store that went under in the early 90's. We had Beno's in some of the rural areas around me too; they were out in Bishop, Truckee, down in Gardnerville, etc. Always wondered about Beno's- never got to go in one. I think they were similar to Stage Stores/Bealls-TX. After they went under Stage Stores moved into some of those towns. Then Stage went under in the 90's. Then Stage reappeared in some of these territories with Bealls-TX banner and essentially the same exact store format in the late 2000's/2010's. Then their questionable Gordman's conversion strategy and the rotten luck of COVID closures right as they were trying to reopen stores as Gordman's caused them to go under for good.