Lake Elsinore on the closure list today too.ClownLoach wrote: ↑April 2nd, 2024, 10:37 pm I'm really starting to wonder if they have made a "behind closed doors" deal to cut up the company and sell chunks to Walgreens and CVS. I didn't think they would do this before, and none of the public court filings support this either, but I do really start to wonder. Reviewing some of the most decimated areas, if you were to do a merger with either chain there would be zero overlap integrating the (few) remaining stores. For example Temecula-Murrieta-Wildomar area is wiped out for Rite Aid. The only remaining store in this entire area with population over 250K is Wildomar, the only corner where Walgreens has a gap in their coverage. I've looked at other areas around Orange County and San Diego and could come up with a similar plan where one market goes to CVS, other goes to Walgreens and so on. In every case one chain could buy a large market, a county at a time, no overlaps.
Both companies could easily scrape together the money to buy out Rite Aid's stores at this point, because it's a one time opportunity where they could make an end run around any kind of antitrust laws.
Maybe this was not the original plan, but the way things have shaken out it paved the way to sell off large segments of the business?
I am really wondering if Rite Aid is going to retreat to their original East Coast roots and sell everything in the West to Walgreens and CVS...
This is what I have been predicting ever since they made the miserable exit from the Tahoe area. Still there are a few closures that went even where they have no CVS/Walgreens like Bishop, CA and Hines, OR among a few others so that is a little weird but maybe the numbers were so bad that the stores were not possible to sell off.
The thing at this point is you have the typical bankruptcy process where different parties want different outcomes. Some creditor groups may want an outcome where part of the company is sold off to CVS/Walgreens and keep the rest operating, others may want total liquidation, management obviously and I hope the unions want to see the profitable pieces as a going concern.