Rite Aid changes logo

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Re: Rite Aid changes logo

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote: July 5th, 2020, 1:40 pm
veteran+ wrote: July 5th, 2020, 5:42 am

That's why I notice in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Very HIGH prices with sale prices barely bringing it down to competitive normals.

On the positive side I find their stores neater, cleaner, more updated and perhaps better merchandised.

Walgreens in these areas excels in customer service, comparing to Rite Aid and CVS.

CVS is worse in everything.
Cutting off all these categories may be the end of the better merchandising.

Are Walgreens union in SoCal like CVS and Rite Aid are? Some bay area Walgreens (the old stores dating back decades) are union but the newer stores in the more remote parts of NorCal are not.
I know that Rite Aid is union in Los Angeles for sure. Their other stores in S. Cal and CVS and Walgreens? I don't know.
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Re: Rite Aid changes logo

Post by klkla »

I'm almost certain two of the chains are unionized: RiteAid (legacy Thrifty Drugs contract) and CVS (legacy SavOn Drugs contract).

Walgreens entered Southern California with new build stores, as opposed to an acquisition of an existing unionized chain, so I would be surprised if they are unionized but I don't know for sure.
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Re: Rite Aid changes logo

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: July 5th, 2020, 7:18 pm According to Rite Aid's earnings call recently they will be changing all exterior signage on all stores by the end of this year. However they only plan to remodel 25 stores into their "new format" between now and the end of the year.

What a colossal waste of money. I'd rather see them take the money they are wasting on exterior signs (probably upwards of $60 million if you figure $30k times 2,200 stores) and build a dozen new stores. That would, you know, actually generate some sales revenue. New logos do not generate revenue.
It would be interesting to see what they do with a lot of the older Rite Aid's in my region that were previously Eckerd stores where Rite Aid just recycled the 'pill capsule' shaped signs.
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Re: Rite Aid changes logo

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: July 6th, 2020, 11:49 am I'm almost certain two of the chains are unionized: RiteAid (legacy Thrifty Drugs contract) and CVS (legacy SavOn Drugs contract).

Walgreens entered Southern California with new build stores, as opposed to an acquisition of an existing unionized chain, so I would be surprised if they are unionized but I don't know for sure.
That was my thought, unless due to Walgreens having some older union stores around San Francisco somehow impacted the status of the SoCal Stores. As I recall in SoCal, Walgreens did not open full size stores at first but just little drive through pharmacy only locations scattered around (like the size of a fast food place). Rite Aid isn't union in OR/WA.
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Re: Rite Aid changes logo

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: July 6th, 2020, 6:49 pm
storewanderer wrote: July 5th, 2020, 7:18 pm According to Rite Aid's earnings call recently they will be changing all exterior signage on all stores by the end of this year. However they only plan to remodel 25 stores into their "new format" between now and the end of the year.

What a colossal waste of money. I'd rather see them take the money they are wasting on exterior signs (probably upwards of $60 million if you figure $30k times 2,200 stores) and build a dozen new stores. That would, you know, actually generate some sales revenue. New logos do not generate revenue.
It would be interesting to see what they do with a lot of the older Rite Aid's in my region that were previously Eckerd stores where Rite Aid just recycled the 'pill capsule' shaped signs.
Those recycled pill signs did look kind of haphazard. I suppose for Eckerd fans they were a memory of some sort. Maybe all the new management saw were a bunch of those signs which had no logo, and said need a logo. They must not have looked at the shield logo on the ads, website, private label items, and uniforms.

I could kind of see putting the new logo onto stores as store remodels take place, as part of a new branding/new format program. That was how Safeway handled Lifestyle stores. That is also how Save Mart has been handling its remodel program lately. But a widespread roll out of the new logo with no other change to the existing product/service inside the building seems like a wasted opportunity.
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Re: Rite Aid changes logo

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

I can go you one better on the pill capsule logo signs. How about where they operated an existing store (with their traditional logo) directly ACROSS THE STREET from an acquired Eckerd. That happened in Glovresville, NY from the time of the Eckerd acquisition until they eventually closed their existing store maybe 5 or so years later. The existing store was opened in 1997 and was a replacement for a smaller store located a few blocks away. The Eckerd opened in 1999 and replaced two smaller stores in town which were Eckerd acquisitions at one time or another. When they were both operating as Rite Aid it was like two different chains because except for the sign, they did nothing to the Eckerd inside or out. Not really surprised they kept the Eckerd-better location with more parking and easier drive-thru access but what this did do was to eventually narrow down the number of chain drug stores in the city itself from three stores down to one.
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Re: Rite Aid changes logo

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: July 6th, 2020, 11:03 pm
mbz321 wrote: July 6th, 2020, 6:49 pm It would be interesting to see what they do with a lot of the older Rite Aid's in my region that were previously Eckerd stores where Rite Aid just recycled the 'pill capsule' shaped signs.
Those recycled pill signs did look kind of haphazard. I suppose for Eckerd fans they were a memory of some sort. Maybe all the new management saw were a bunch of those signs which had no logo, and said need a logo. They must not have looked at the shield logo on the ads, website, private label items, and uniforms.

I could kind of see putting the new logo onto stores as store remodels take place, as part of a new branding/new format program. That was how Safeway handled Lifestyle stores. That is also how Save Mart has been handling its remodel program lately. But a widespread roll out of the new logo with no other change to the existing product/service inside the building seems like a wasted opportunity.
Thinking about this area, most of those stores became Walgreens, so there won't be much issue with that. Maybe one or two, if that (then again, the number of Rite Aid stores left overall isn't huge).
TW-Upstate NY wrote: July 7th, 2020, 9:14 am I can go you one better on the pill capsule logo signs. How about where they operated an existing store (with their traditional logo) directly ACROSS THE STREET from an acquired Eckerd. That happened in Gloversville, NY from the time of the Eckerd acquisition until they eventually closed their existing store maybe 5 or so years later. The existing store was opened in 1997 and was a replacement for a smaller store located a few blocks away. The Eckerd opened in 1999 and replaced two smaller stores in town which were Eckerd acquisitions at one time or another. When they were both operating as Rite Aid it was like two different chains because except for the sign, they did nothing to the Eckerd inside or out. Not really surprised they kept the Eckerd-better location with more parking and easier drive-thru access but what this did do was to eventually narrow down the number of chain drug stores in the city itself from three stores down to one.
I can think of one here where that setup occurred, and they did the same (running both for a bit) and eventually closing the Rite Aid (this one was freestanding but old enough to not have drive thru) keeping the Eckerd. That is a Walgreens now.
Several other places where the two were close by they quickly closed the Eckerd stores and kept their own, but in those cases the Eckerd was the older store (the couple I can think of quickly were from Fays days and both in old supermarket spaces).
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Re: Rite Aid changes logo

Post by submariner »

I'm closing this topic - First, it's obvious at this point Rite Aid has (at least for the immediate future) abandoned the logo change plan. Second, this topic has strayed to far off-topic for the original post.
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