Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: January 15th, 2023, 2:33 pm

The reason I called out the gardening aisle is that it is a completely frivolous exercise in selling seasonal merchandise. The store has probably about 20 linear feet total of seasonal space and they're selling seed starting greenhouse kits which really require advanced gardening skills. The buyer for these isn't going to Rite Aid for one. The store just doesn't have enough product. I believe it had two regular checkouts, one of which gets used for the Thrifty ice cream counter, and two self checkouts. The self checkouts are around the corner and close to the door; I don't think I saw anyone use it probably because you can't see them from the checkout queue line which is problematic.
I haven't noticed greenhouse kits, I wonder if they just pushed some summer items in early? Or do those appear to be special for this location?

So the self checkouts are not visible to the customer so the customer isn't going to obviously use them, and then if it isn't visible to the customer does that also mean they aren't visible to employees too? That is really great for watching them...

Kind of sounds like Rite Aid forgot how to do a workable store prototype over the past couple of years too. Some of this is real basic stuff... that got missed.

How did the liquor area/assortment look? Was that cut too?
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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At this point I'm hoping that every new and future report of a RAD store closure is a hoax(press or social media),but even the social media ones speak volumes.
Anyway,one of two El Cajon locations is apparently closing:The 1135 Avocado location (former Thrifty Drug that shares a center with Vons on the SEC Avocado/Chase avenues) despite having new signage hasn't been remodeled in a quarter century (one of the earliest RA-1 conversions)as opposed to the other El Cajon location(a SotF Payless that remodeled into the first generation Wellness decor)in the 1990-ish Rancho San Diego power center along jamacha road(don't know offhand if the freestanding Kohl's was a later original build or was a former Mervyns beforehand).

In fact, I can think of quite a few not-closed California RAD locations(at least a dozen, likely more)that never remodeled into either customer world or Wellness decor(not just my store). They range from the Castro Valley Lee Bros/Payless museum to a pair of still unremodeled original build RA-1 units(Ontario Archibald as well as the lone remaining Tracy location at 1970 West Grant Line whose architecture resembles the earliest version of that prototype).

Can't yet speak for the greenhouse items in question but we already have quite a bit of lawn/garden items in stock now which should insulate my store from the possibility of closure for quite a few months though a SoCal Frito Lay merchandiser who used to work for RAD noted on Reddit that closures are likely to ramp up during February and March (wraparound months for when the corporate fiscal year ends and the next one begins).

I'd never have imagined that any of the CEO's of RAD that succeeded Martin Grass would end up going 'hold my beer' whenever anyone mentioned how bad the younger Grass was as RAD CEO.

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: January 15th, 2023, 5:50 pm
ClownLoach wrote: January 15th, 2023, 2:33 pm

The reason I called out the gardening aisle is that it is a completely frivolous exercise in selling seasonal merchandise. The store has probably about 20 linear feet total of seasonal space and they're selling seed starting greenhouse kits which really require advanced gardening skills. The buyer for these isn't going to Rite Aid for one. The store just doesn't have enough product. I believe it had two regular checkouts, one of which gets used for the Thrifty ice cream counter, and two self checkouts. The self checkouts are around the corner and close to the door; I don't think I saw anyone use it probably because you can't see them from the checkout queue line which is problematic.
I haven't noticed greenhouse kits, I wonder if they just pushed some summer items in early? Or do those appear to be special for this location?

So the self checkouts are not visible to the customer so the customer isn't going to obviously use them, and then if it isn't visible to the customer does that also mean they aren't visible to employees too? That is really great for watching them...

Kind of sounds like Rite Aid forgot how to do a workable store prototype over the past couple of years too. Some of this is real basic stuff... that got missed.

How did the liquor area/assortment look? Was that cut too?
Liquor was small as well. I think there was only about 8 feet of beer in coolers, probably about 12 feet of hard liquor and another 20 feet total of beer and wine. So half of one side of a traditional store aisle. Very small. Also for some reason chips and snacks are split in half. Half are across the wall from liquor, the other half are in an aisle next to the weird little seasonal area that I mentioned with oddball garden supplies. I could understand the garden stuff in old PayLess stores that had the plant racks outside in a mini nursery, but this store lacks so much of everything else the space is better given to regular merchandise.

I realized there is another Rite Aid south of this store on Winchester. I didn't visit that one but I think it was a normal size Wellness store. I sure hope their plan isn't to close that store with this new location as a permanent replacement.

I shouldn't give the impression that it is an ugly store. It is not anything as fancy looking as the investor presentation of the new prototype, which had open ceilings and fancy hanging structures over the pharmacy and nice hanging signage. There is a hanging fixture over checkout/ice cream and along the path through the center store but it just has some wood panels and spotlights along with plastic ivy that looks like it came from Hobby Lobby. That ivy will get dirty and need to be thrown away in just a few months, I have no idea why they would use a plastic floral garland to decorate a drugstore.

The store is just not up to the quality of the "fancy" Wellness stores that had nice shiny tile and wood floors, great lighting, etc. It isn't as nice in my opinion as the "less upgraded" Wellness stores either. It is still light years better than a CVS. But it is a significant downgrade coupled with at least a 50% SKU reduction from the comparable size "newer" Irvine Los Olivos store. Way too many low low fixtures. Each aisle leads in with a very short "feature space" behind the endcap, I think this fixture is 8 ft long and only 4 ft tall. They should have left traditional endcaps and regular height aisles. The regular aisles appeared to be shorter than normal Rite Aid aisles and may have only been 5 ft total like CVS. You can see how this would quickly result in a drastically reduced SKU count with such small gondola fixtures. You can also see why the stores that lost so much product were being led down the path to being like this new prototype. I question if they were ever going to actually "remodel" anything into it because again as I see it the remodel would mean removing good fixtures, lighting, flooring and gondolas and replacing with inferior materials and smaller fixtures. The net result of the remodel would be a downgrade. The only reason to remodel to this would be if a store was worn out.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

storewanderer wrote: January 15th, 2023, 5:50 pm
ClownLoach wrote: January 15th, 2023, 2:33 pm

The reason I called out the gardening aisle is that it is a completely frivolous exercise in selling seasonal merchandise. The store has probably about 20 linear feet total of seasonal space and they're selling seed starting greenhouse kits which really require advanced gardening skills. The buyer for these isn't going to Rite Aid for one. The store just doesn't have enough product. I believe it had two regular checkouts, one of which gets used for the Thrifty ice cream counter, and two self checkouts. The self checkouts are around the corner and close to the door; I don't think I saw anyone use it probably because you can't see them from the checkout queue line which is problematic.
I haven't noticed greenhouse kits, I wonder if they just pushed some summer items in early? Or do those appear to be special for this location?

So the self checkouts are not visible to the customer so the customer isn't going to obviously use them, and then if it isn't visible to the customer does that also mean they aren't visible to employees too? That is really great for watching them...

Kind of sounds like Rite Aid forgot how to do a workable store prototype over the past couple of years too. Some of this is real basic stuff... that got missed.

How did the liquor area/assortment look? Was that cut too?
It appears that 'unexplained departure' of heyward donigan was too little too late to prevent the dumbing down of this new store.Going forward I hope the regime(s) of Elizabeth 'Busy' Burr and/or her permanent successor do the following to quickly distance themselves from 'the former gal' asap:
  • Give highest remodel priority to locations that don't have at least the customer world decor package (Sunrise Village, I'm looking at you)
  • Reconsider reviving the customer world and/or Wellness formats for future remodels with possible minor tweaks
  • revisit the merchandising of the prior customer world and/or Wellness formats and...
  • reexamine the previously discontinued non-core merchandise and consider at least half of it for reintroduction to store shelves, and not just on the West Coast.


Also it appears that closed stores are now being completely removed from the online locator rather than being marked as such which makes it trickier to determine the below the radar closures that don't always get reported (Manhattan BPC and North Bend Oregon are the first 2023 stores so far,the latter sadly belonging in the Cameron Park category,only found out it's now officially closed when noticing the lack of nearby stores listed in the listing for the still open bandon location).
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by ClownLoach »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: January 20th, 2023, 1:11 pm
storewanderer wrote: January 15th, 2023, 5:50 pm
ClownLoach wrote: January 15th, 2023, 2:33 pm

The reason I called out the gardening aisle is that it is a completely frivolous exercise in selling seasonal merchandise. The store has probably about 20 linear feet total of seasonal space and they're selling seed starting greenhouse kits which really require advanced gardening skills. The buyer for these isn't going to Rite Aid for one. The store just doesn't have enough product. I believe it had two regular checkouts, one of which gets used for the Thrifty ice cream counter, and two self checkouts. The self checkouts are around the corner and close to the door; I don't think I saw anyone use it probably because you can't see them from the checkout queue line which is problematic.
I haven't noticed greenhouse kits, I wonder if they just pushed some summer items in early? Or do those appear to be special for this location?

So the self checkouts are not visible to the customer so the customer isn't going to obviously use them, and then if it isn't visible to the customer does that also mean they aren't visible to employees too? That is really great for watching them...

Kind of sounds like Rite Aid forgot how to do a workable store prototype over the past couple of years too. Some of this is real basic stuff... that got missed.

How did the liquor area/assortment look? Was that cut too?
It appears that 'unexplained departure' of heyward donigan was too little too late to prevent the dumbing down of this new store.
If I had to guess - I'd say they already figured out the new prototype doesn't work which is why the store looks "dumbed down." They had to open something because they were about to be the last store to open in the new center, so they probably canceled as much expensive one-off visual graphics manufacturing as possible to just get it open with something. Store fixtures were probably already bought and had to be used. Lots of ordinary letters on the wall which remind me of the last remodels of Thrifty/Payless before RA took over, but in contemporary fonts and color.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: January 20th, 2023, 9:10 pm

If I had to guess - I'd say they already figured out the new prototype doesn't work which is why the store looks "dumbed down." They had to open something because they were about to be the last store to open in the new center, so they probably canceled as much expensive one-off visual graphics manufacturing as possible to just get it open with something. Store fixtures were probably already bought and had to be used. Lots of ordinary letters on the wall which remind me of the last remodels of Thrifty/Payless before RA took over, but in contemporary fonts and color.
We do have pretty good photos over on Google Maps of the Boise remodel. Does it look like that one?
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1 ... -w680-h510

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1 ... -w680-h510


Full listing at Google Maps is for 1515 West State Street Boise, ID.

What gets me is Boise was a really attractive Wellness store with can lights. They did this I don't know what I am going to call it, let's just call it the 2020 prototype, and in that remodel, they moved to those overly bright rectangle lights.

It is also weird this Rite Aid has two listings on the store locator.
https://www.riteaid.com/locations/ca/winchester.html
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: January 20th, 2023, 10:19 pm
ClownLoach wrote: January 20th, 2023, 9:10 pm

If I had to guess - I'd say they already figured out the new prototype doesn't work which is why the store looks "dumbed down." They had to open something because they were about to be the last store to open in the new center, so they probably canceled as much expensive one-off visual graphics manufacturing as possible to just get it open with something. Store fixtures were probably already bought and had to be used. Lots of ordinary letters on the wall which remind me of the last remodels of Thrifty/Payless before RA took over, but in contemporary fonts and color.
We do have pretty good photos over on Google Maps of the Boise remodel. Does it look like that one?
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1 ... -w680-h510

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1 ... -w680-h510


Full listing at Google Maps is for 1515 West State Street Boise, ID.

What gets me is Boise was a really attractive Wellness store with can lights. They did this I don't know what I am going to call it, let's just call it the 2020 prototype, and in that remodel, they moved to those overly bright rectangle lights.

It is also weird this Rite Aid has two listings on the store locator.
https://www.riteaid.com/locations/ca/winchester.html
No. Has aisle signs like blue Wellness signs. Walls are plain and flat. Cheap troffer lights.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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ClownLoach wrote: January 21st, 2023, 12:08 pm

No. Has aisle signs like blue Wellness signs. Walls are plain and flat. Cheap troffer lights.
This is troubling. When they drew plans up for the store I am assuming the entire interior decor package/design/fixtures were defined in those plans, before the thing was even permitted and approved.

I assume the plans were done under the new prototype.

So that means to get to this end result they had to change order the plans. I find it interesting the cost to change order the plans was worth paying, vs. just going along with the original plan for the store.

Unless it was always planned this way, and the new prototype was limited to a select few remodels in strange places like Idaho and Virginia Beach (well that wasn't strange, the ex-CEO lived there) and a single new store elsewhere in SoCal,

The real problem I continue to see is the lack of inventory and excessive out of stocks. Today I was wanting to buy a couple SKUs of Rite Aid vitamins, both out of stock. About 1/3 of the SKUs of Rite Aid vitamins were out of stock. Vitamins are such a high markup item especially private label that being out of stock on those seems really stupid. One thing I did notice though and this is in Gardnerville is the last time I was in there maybe 2 weeks ago, the freezers were out of service (however they were able to obtain some ice cream from a freezer in the back room then) and there were multiple leaks in the ceiling with trash cans capturing the water and ceiling tiles removed (common sight in many places in the area the past few weeks). Today the freezers were back working and the leaks had been fixed.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

As I previously stated multiple times,the first concept prototype format location in California opened a year or two in the Ventura county community of Camarillo.This new store occupies a portion of a former Albertsons (a larger part of it is now occupied by a Sprout's)and replaced a Thrifty or Payless location within the same center(http://www.camarillovillagesquare.com)with the prior store(had Wellness 2.0 decor at the end)now occupied by a Ross.I must note that interior pictures of the replacement store (at least on Yelp and Google Maps)remain lacking outside of a few pics focused on the new design Thrifty hand dip counter.I presume the interior was better planned.

In any case,the new French Valley Winchester store brought the California RAD store count back up to 481(after 50 closures among some 170 chainwide that occurred between Halloween 2021 and the end of November 2022),but unfortunately the Golden state's store count is back down to 480 after the official first loss of 2023(this below-the-radar closure happening yesterday):the vintage(early to mid-1950's) Panorama City Thrifty Drug at 8400 Van nuys boulevard was falsefronted/remodeled many times in its nearly 70 years as a drugstore (certain other Panorama Center co-tenants,most notably the current dollar tree,still have intact vintage facades),but still had an intact pylon sign not to mention that the only update in the RAD era came when it rebranded (got blue awning signage and RA-1 interior circa 1998 and had both until the very end,never got a wellness remodel or new logo signs). Despite its age it is(or was)far from the oldest continuously operating Thrifty in LA,as the Sunset Strip (7900 Sunset, opened 1936 and expanded/remodeled/falsefronted many times, I believe an a&p operated in part of the building early on)and Lincoln Heights (111 East Avenue 26, open since at least the late 1940's)are even longer running.Hopefully the prescriptions simply went to the closest go-forward RAD location (two a piece in North Hollywood and Van nuys,one a piece in pacoima, Northridge, San Fernando,and Granada hills; Mission Hills closed this past spring) instead of being sold;same going for North Bend Oregon (nearest remaining locations are in bandon and Florence).Closer to Sacramento,a recent Yelp review suggests that San Mateo concar's reprieve from redevelopment will soon run out(all existing retail buildings excluding maybe 7-eleven and/or Trader Joe's are set to be razed for the long planned concar passage mixed-use project as lake52 previously reported).On the subject of the Bay area,San Ramon is still marked as 'temporarily closed' on Google Maps though marked as open on Yelp,the most recent review on either platform was last month.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by veteran+ »

Slight correction:

That Rite Aid on Sunset & Fairfax is not part of the Sunset Strip.

The "Sunset Strip" starts at Crescent Heights Blvd going west until you reach the border of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.

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