Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

[ClownLoach]

The Orange County Register is reporting that a store in the city of Orange is closing, and they state it is not on any of the published closure lists. (Their retail reporting recently is suspect so this could be inaccurate but I thought it was worth mentioning). It has full liquidator type signage in the pictures shown.

[Retailuser]

It appears to be true as they are stopping vaccine appointments next week.

[JimKarras]

It’s real. I drove by the Orange (California) store there this past Sunday (4/28/24). The going out of business signs are up. The store is closing on May 16th.

What I find interesting is they also closed the Tustin store (on Newport Ave.) and I don’t recall seeing that location listed either.

Our family is hoping to go one last time for their Thrifty ice cream. This store has a big square planter with a two and a half foot brick planter in front of the store. That planter always is a gathering point for families to sit and eat their ice cream cones in the summer. We will miss that, but not much else about the store anymore.

[storewanderer]

Orange used to be a 24 hour store and a busy store. What happened?

This company seems to like to kill itself.

Still cannot believe the shelf conditions of out of stocks in their stores right now. Just cannot believe it. At this point- send the managers to a competitor Wal Mart or Target to buy items to fill the outs. Problem at this point their out of stocks are so far out of control it would take cartloads to fix it... Do something.

[ClownLoach]

Orange used to be a 24 hour store and a busy store. What happened?

This company seems to like to kill itself.

Still cannot believe the shelf conditions of out of stocks in their stores right now. Just cannot believe it. At this point- send the managers to a competitor Wal Mart or Target to buy items to fill the outs. Problem at this point their out of stocks are so far out of control it would take cartloads to fix it... Do something.

Walgreens across the street is one of the rare 24 hour locations locally. There is a hospital on the other side of CA-55 which probably drove traffic to these stores but they just downgraded and no longer offer an emergency room. But the Rite Aid is a superior location all around and always seemed to be busy. Makes me suspect the landlord found a replacement tenant who would pay more and tried to back out of rent concessions.

[mburb1981]

Only one store in today's new closure list - Youngstown, New York (a town at the northwesternmost corner of the state along Lake Ontario, directly across it to the southeast from Toronto), an older store housed in a former centennial A&P building. The nearest stores post-closure are in Ransomville and in Lewiston (which is adjacent to Niagara Falls to the north).

[storewanderer]

Orange used to be a 24 hour store and a busy store. What happened?

This company seems to like to kill itself.

Still cannot believe the shelf conditions of out of stocks in their stores right now. Just cannot believe it. At this point- send the managers to a competitor Wal Mart or Target to buy items to fill the outs. Problem at this point their out of stocks are so far out of control it would take cartloads to fix it... Do something.

Walgreens across the street is one of the rare 24 hour locations locally. There is a hospital on the other side of CA-55 which probably drove traffic to these stores but they just downgraded and no longer offer an emergency room. But the Rite Aid is a superior location all around and always seemed to be busy. Makes me suspect the landlord found a replacement tenant who would pay more and tried to back out of rent concessions.

Or Rite Aid has a busy store and simply wants the proceeds from selling the prescription files........

March financials got posted to the bankruptcy docket. Horrendous. The company is losing so much money... (ignoring the gains from Elixr sale). Recall they didn't do a whole lot of store closures in March and ramped those back up again in April.

I am not happy with how this is going. And something tells me I'm not going to get any happier.

I really didn't get overly upset when retailers like BBB, Toys R Us, etc. couldn't navigate a successful exit from bankruptcy and went away. But Rite Aid going away really is going to hit me a lot harder. Then we have that 99 Only thing that just decided to give up and wind down... in retrospect I start to wonder if when a company has given up is that the best strategy vs. putting on an act like you want to reorganize? Because I sure feel like Rite Aid has given up.

[storewanderer]

For some reason the GNC.com website is now selling a bunch of Rite Aid brand vitamins.

This may not seem unusual since GNC has had a contract to supply Rite Aid brand vitamins for decades now. But this is very recent the GNC.com sells Rite Aid vitamins.

Also most/all of these are "out of stock" at Rite Aid.com for shipping orders (some stores have them for pick ups).

However the thing I find strange is they are selling these in single count units or "12 packs" and they are all selling at clearance/reduced prices.

Rite Aid is also out of stock on many of these exact SKUs of Rite Aid vitamins at many (but not all) of their stores, but the stores that do have inventory, a lot of it expires in less than 1 year so I think it is old stock.

Why would GNC do this instead of distribute the vitamins to Rite Aid so Rite Aid can be in stock on these items...?

[Alpha8472]

Perhaps Rite Aid is not paying its suppliers. GNC realizes that Rite Aid is a deadbeat.

Now GNC is stopping the supply of Rite Aid branded vitamins and supplements. GNC is selling off its entire overstock supply of Rite Aid vitamins on clearance.

Rite Aid will have to find a new supplier for its Rite Aid branded vitamins.

[BillyGr]

For some reason the GNC.com website is now selling a bunch of Rite Aid brand vitamins.

This may not seem unusual since GNC has had a contract to supply Rite Aid brand vitamins for decades now. But this is very recent the GNC.com sells Rite Aid vitamins.

Also most/all of these are "out of stock" at Rite Aid.com for shipping orders (some stores have them for pick ups).

However the thing I find strange is they are selling these in single count units or "12 packs" and they are all selling at clearance/reduced prices.

Rite Aid is also out of stock on many of these exact SKUs of Rite Aid vitamins at many (but not all) of their stores, but the stores that do have inventory, a lot of it expires in less than 1 year so I think it is old stock.

Why would GNC do this instead of distribute the vitamins to Rite Aid so Rite Aid can be in stock on these items...?

Unless GNC simply produced too many of these items (particularly with less stores to sell them now than when they were being produced, for the items that have short life left), and they are all in that category of shorter dates, so Rite Aid doesn't want them shipped to stores, only to have them expire before they can sell them, even if that means empty spots in the stores?