Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Rite Aid that flooded in San Ramon, California finally reopened. However, they close the entire store at 9 PM which is the same time that the pharmacy closes. They posted signs telling customers to go to another Rite Aid in distant Alamo, California if they are unsatisfied by the new hours. The store looks remarkably normal now. They replaced everything to make it seem like nothing had happened. The decor did not change.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

That is excellent news they got it reopened so quickly. Did other tenants also get reopened, or does it seem the Rite Aid reopening was expedited?

May just be the landlord's doing and nothing to do with Rite Aid but in any case it is great they got it reopened so quickly.

Was there much traffic in this location between 9 PM and 10 PM? Hard to imagine Alamo having much traffic late at night so strange to keep that open later... would expect more at San Ramon...
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

All the other stores and restaurants seemed to be back open except for Big 5 which is still boarded up.

The Rite Aid in San Ramon is actually less busy than the one in Alamo. Ever since Sprouts raised their prices, the shopping center has been very quiet. Fewer customers go to the shopping center and traffic is down. The parking lot used to be packed at Sprouts, but now it is mostly empty.

The Rite Aid in San Ramon was very quiet at night after about 8 PM.

The Safeway nearby in San Ramon remodeled to the Pavilions decor and took much of Sprouts' business. The CVS next to Safeway was also remodeled into a very fancy looking HealthHub. Many customers have moved over to CVS. The store is larger and has a nicer ambience.

Alamo is very busy and bustling due to the remodeled Safeway and all of the nice shops and restaurants of Alamo Plaza. That Rite Aid does very good business.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

No significant hours changes in/around Sacramento (aside from select stores including Roseville Foothills slightly rolling back weekend front end hours to 9am-9pm),but speaking of the Bay area San Rafael Northgate Mall (whose pharmacy staffing issues were all over multiple reddits last year rolled back hours more significantly:the store now only open 9am-6pm daily and though the pharmacy remains open daily weekday hours are mirroring typical Saturday hours (Sunday pharmacy hours remain the typical 10am-6pm).The other San Rafael store(opposite 101 from downtown)is at least open until 9pm daily with typical pharmacy hours.

Don't know how much longer adjoining Ross and TJ Maxx locations will remain open in the midst of log proposed redevelopment,but the long 54+ year run of the San Mateo payless(opened December 1968)came to an end Wednesday night.I must also note that the RAD website now removes closed stores from the locator instantly which makes it trickier to determine the below the radar closures (a minimum of two closures in Delaware, Ohio,and/or New Jersey have occurred since 2023 began).

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

That is a bad situation in San Rafael.

The biggest reason I say this is I just pulled up CVS pharmacy hours around a 5 mile radius of San Rafael:

125 Shoreline, San Rafael - 24 hour pharmacy
Las Gallinas, San Rafael - M-F 10-8, S-S 10-6 pharmacy
Greenbrae - 24 hour pharmacy
San Anselmo - M-F 10-8, S-S 10-6 pharmacy
Mill Valley - M-F 10-8, S-S 10-6 pharmacy
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

I believe that San Ramon sprouts (which shares Crow Canyon place with RAD) occupies most of an otherwise subdivided Lucky turned short lived Albertsons.

An update on those oversized empty boxes my store received:our Fuji instant digital machine was recently removed as a push to deemphasize photo services at 'lower volume' locations.

Also, despite its sizable store count(196 as of yesterday),the Ohio presence is somewhat inconsistent as since withdrawing from Cincy and Columbus a couple decades ago in a multi market swap with CVS,the largest cities in the buckeye state with a sizable RAD presence are Toledo, Dayton,and Cleveland though the latter will soon have one location less(never mind the tweeter's political talking points):


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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

I don't think Gardnerville has had a photo machine since the Wellness remodel was done. South Lake Tahoe had a machine, probably been broken for years.

I was noticing in some Walgreens locations I went to in December those photo departments were still surprisingly busy with people ordering cards and other things. I was very surprised. Those departments are dead most of the year but it is possible the volume they do in December makes them work keeping. I noticed Walgreens has downgraded the equipment into easier to maintain stuff, changing chemicals out nightly and complex paper changing is long gone from most if not all locations now.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by buckguy »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: January 30th, 2023, 11:39 am I believe that San Ramon sprouts (which shares Crow Canyon place with RAD) occupies most of an otherwise subdivided Lucky turned short lived Albertsons.

An update on those oversized empty boxes my store received:our Fuji instant digital machine was recently removed as a push to deemphasize photo services at 'lower volume' locations.

Also, despite its sizable store count(196 as of yesterday),the Ohio presence is somewhat inconsistent as since withdrawing from Cincy and Columbus a couple decades ago in a multi market swap with CVS,the largest cities in the buckeye state with a sizable RAD presence are Toledo, Dayton,and Cleveland though the latter will soon have one location less(never mind the tweeter's political talking points):


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They're strong in Toledo because they bought Lane's which had dominated the market for decades and Gray's which was a lesser player with a few good locations (they had close relations with a number of regional shopping center developers). Gray was the most longlived of major chains in Cleveland and although based there it wasn't the most dominant---still they had absorbed Cunningham's which itself had taken over most of the SuperXs. Elsewhere in Ohio, they were a second to third tier player, as they were in Toledo, mostly benefiting from relationships they had with developers. They also had owned discount stores for a couple decades which helped in knowing the markets. The RiteAids in Cincinnati (a longstanding Walgreen stronghold) and Columbus would have been former Grays and would have given them a weak footprint in both places

The St. Clair-E 105th area is long past its heyday. I think the old centennial A&P and Fisher Foods stores are still there with the Fisher's even having a grocery tenant. The closed Rite-Aid location was a vacant lot that once had a Kroger and a regional discount chain. along with a long running and long-closed furniture store. The city has succeeded getting some new retail into that area with chain tenants in recent years.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

One month into the stewardship of caretaker CEO, it's more or less 'no news is good news' though a with couple closures within the past couple of days.First,the 2023 NYC closures aren't exactly limited to Manhattan as the closure of Bronx Mott Haven (537-539 east 138th)leaves eleven remaining locations in NYC's lone mainland borough(never mind any political talking points discussed in the tweet).


Additionally in SoCal,the closure of the Redondo shores location (401 North PCH,had first generation Wellness decor)leaves one Redondo Beach location remaining (1720 aviation,has Wellness 2.0 decor).I presume both were former Thrifty locations though the closed location appears to be one of the last new build locations before the merger with Payless (Redondo shores center dates from 1990 according to property records).The fact that both RB stores were extended hours locations (open until 11pm daily) gave me a false sense of security in terms of RS being a viable store.Ditto for Panorama City which had extended weekday pharmacy hours (8am-10pm) though front end hours were typical. Speaking of Panorama City,would sending their pharmacy files to a go forward RAD location (i.e.,either of the two Van nuys locations) have made more sense than to sell them to a legacy sav-on further out?



(Semi-ot)
More often than not(especially last year),files from closed RAD locations have been ultimately sold to competitors.However,a location in the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood is acquiring the files of a closing Walgreens in that neighborhood which is actually opposite of the norm.

https://qns.com/2023/02/ridgewood-walgr ... ly-closes/

(/Semi-ot)

As it stands right now,there are a total of 2311 RAD locations chainwide:2244 namesake locations (taking into account that Winchester/French Valley is errantly counted twice on the official locator)and 67 bartell locations (the closed Chinatown location is still listed on the bartell locator as opposed to the parent chain's official locator which now removes closed locations within a day or two of closure).At the time of the departure of 'the former gal' there were 2257 namesake RAD locations, Winchester French Valley was still a couple days from opening.So far in 2023, fourteen locations chainwide (all namesake, none bartell)have closed;but given that the 2022 closures (actually began in November 2021) were conducted with just 2-3 weeks notice to employees of affected stores,it appears that so far the 2023 closures that have occurred were greenlit by the now previous CEO (curbside online pickup processing is generally disabled roughly 5-6 weeks in advance based on the 900 Sunrise closure timeframe).As opposed to this time last year, we're not seeing is big of a store closure bloodbath this time around (in fact only two closures have occurred this week which is fewer than any of the prior three weeks),but at the same time the caretaker corporate regime has been relatively tight lipped in the past month since the HQ shakeup.The next few weeks will be a telling tale for sure whether things are truly stabilizing.Not to mention that the final fy2023 numbers (not just fy2023q4) won't be out until the early middle of April,though one positive is that RAD shares have been cumulatively positive since the departure of heyward donigan (though the backstory of the circumstances remain a mystery), speaking of whom the next location of a pet project she championed (a third mini-sized location in scottsville Virginia)is tentatively scheduled to open within the next few months (we'll see if this timetable holds true).

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

I did notice they have shipped some garden merchandise into the stores already, mostly garden decor type items.

Valentine's was sent so little about 80% of it is already gone.
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