Retail Watchers

storewanderer wrote: ↑June 25th, 2020, 9:09 pm

ClownLoach wrote: ↑June 24th, 2020, 7:50 am The new logo was going up on their Costa Mesa 17th St. Location a few days ago.

That probably means the store was remodeled...

Nope. Was remodeled a couple of years ago. Not the wacky looking new prototype they showed with the new logo. Just the standard newer Rite Aid "Wellness" store with woodgrain walls and the hanging LED "ring" shaped department signs.

ClownLoach wrote: ↑June 27th, 2020, 6:58 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑June 25th, 2020, 9:09 pm

ClownLoach wrote: ↑June 24th, 2020, 7:50 am The new logo was going up on their Costa Mesa 17th St. Location a few days ago.

That probably means the store was remodeled...

Nope. Was remodeled a couple of years ago. Not the wacky looking new prototype they showed with the new logo. Just the standard newer Rite Aid "Wellness" store with woodgrain walls and the hanging LED "ring" shaped department signs.

This is disappointing. I would think they would wait to put up the new logo until they do remodels... or maybe I was just hoping for that.

Maybe the store will undergo a remodel soon?

New signs do not always indicate a remodel is in the works. I have seen many examples of new signage with no other changes to a business. Examples include not only Rite Aid, but also Safeway, Sears, Kmart, Wendy's (our local one was remodeled a few years back and got new logo signage this year), Jack In The Box, and many major brand gas stations including Chevron, Shell, Texaco, and others. I also remember when the TOP Foods store in Kelso, WA advertised a grand reopening. The only change I could see was that the store installed new signage and new checkstands, the rest of the store was untouched.

They still haven't put the new logo on their website.

This week the Rite Aid 75% off sale extended to the automotive category. It appears the only items left will be those little tree air fresheners and windshield washer fluid. I was going to buy some motor oil-they had full synthetic that I would have used at only 2.24 per quart which was a great deal; I looked at the LOT code on the item and found it was made in 2017. So I passed on that. Good news, is, I found an iron at 75% off. It had a shipping tag on it from the Rite Aid distribution center, also dated 2017. This store remodeled last in 2017. It appears they did not sell any of this stuff.

storewanderer wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2020, 10:03 pm This week the Rite Aid 75% off sale extended to the automotive category. It appears the only items left will be those little tree air fresheners and windshield washer fluid. I was going to buy some motor oil-they had full synthetic that I would have used at only 2.24 per quart which was a great deal; I looked at the LOT code on the item and found it was made in 2017. So I passed on that. Good news, is, I found an iron at 75% off. It had a shipping tag on it from the Rite Aid distribution center, also dated 2017. This store remodeled last in 2017. It appears they did not sell any of this stuff.

I noticed this the other day, some of the prices still seemed really high even with the sale, like some tire shine for $10 after the discount. Also, motor oil doesn't necessarily 'go bad', at least that quickly.

I noticed the prices on the "auto accessory" items looked very high even with 75% off. Not really knowing how those items are usually priced, I wasn't sure about it but I do look at that section at Wal Mart sometimes. My bigger concern on the oil was how quickly I'd end up using it. The anti-freeze prices seemed okay with 75% off; they had like 5 SKUs to choose from.

Other thing I noticed is some of these categories at Rite Aid had DSD (vendor) on the shelf tags. The entire sporting goods and things like bath towels, etc. all had DSD on the shelf tag. But the automotive, small kitchen electronics, sewing, shoe goods, and kitchen goods areas do not have DSD so assume those come out of Rite Aid's warehouses. This is a pretty big block of items to remove from the warehouses. I wonder if they actually ordered directly from manfacturers these auto, small kitchen, sewing, and shoe items in their warehouses or just did bigger orders from some secondary vendor then broke it down for the individual stores.

mbz321 wrote: ↑July 4th, 2020, 9:35 am

storewanderer wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2020, 10:03 pm This week the Rite Aid 75% off sale extended to the automotive category. It appears the only items left will be those little tree air fresheners and windshield washer fluid. I was going to buy some motor oil-they had full synthetic that I would have used at only 2.24 per quart which was a great deal; I looked at the LOT code on the item and found it was made in 2017. So I passed on that. Good news, is, I found an iron at 75% off. It had a shipping tag on it from the Rite Aid distribution center, also dated 2017. This store remodeled last in 2017. It appears they did not sell any of this stuff.

I noticed this the other day, some of the prices still seemed really high even with the sale, like some tire shine for $10 after the discount. Also, motor oil doesn't necessarily 'go bad', at least that quickly.

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.

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.

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.