I agree this has been off since day one. I have seen no backroom equipment auctioned off. There were ads for their cold boxes but I don't even see those anymore. Pic n Save struck me as being full of it from day one, although I'll chalk some of that up to the media, who took a small quote that he was interested in buying some of the stores and blew it up to "he's saving the chain!" Lots of outlets have jumped on Ollie's story proclaiming that the 99 Cents Only Store isn't actually closing! Total crap, but it gets clicks.ClownLoach wrote: ↑May 22nd, 2024, 1:01 pmThose Rite Aid self liquidations - I really wonder if they were playing some sort of financial game around asset abandonment or accelerated depreciation so that they could reduce their tax burden.storewanderer wrote: ↑May 21st, 2024, 11:28 pmThat is a massive closure round to close everything left on Sunday. I think at least half of the stores are still open.HoustonRetail wrote: ↑May 21st, 2024, 5:33 pm According to ads on Facebook, Sunday is the final day for all stores. I haven't inquired directly about fixtures, but I have noticed they're not selling much. Free-standing items seem to be sold while shelving and perimeters are being left alone. Maybe they had a bid for the entire lot of shelving?
Shelving was sold at the stores that closed in my area and one store got rid of quite a bit of shelving. I don't think the others sold any shelving.
I have yet to see them sell any "backroom" stuff.
The fixture sales have been strange, especially for Hilco, who usually sells any fixture and supplies including pens and tape dispensers, notepads, used paperclips, etc.
While in the midst of this I did watch a Rite Aid closure sale run by Hilco. They did their drawn out thing. Ran it for what felt like two months. Last time I was there about 9 days ago, the employee told me the store had 10 days left. There was a group there at the store disassembling various shelves and loading them into a U-Haul as they had bought the shelves. They weren't selling supplies yet but everything else fixture-wise was for sale.
This is far different than the hundreds of Rite Aid closures that occurred through 2/2024 where Rite Aid left everything inside except carts, computers, and registers. They could reopen hundreds of stores tomorrow by putting merchandise back on the shelves and bringing in computers/registers (even the shelf tags etc are mostly still up in the closed stores).
There doesn't seem to be any more talk of the Pic N Save guy rescuing or resurrecting this chain.
There has been something very "off" about this from day one. I still question the real estate piece as the facts showed that there were some expensive assets available to be monetized. As I mentioned before it is clear that there will be something left here when the closures are done, a holding company shell with money left in it for someone to cash out on. Seemingly few creditors to pay which aligns with the lax effort to get maximum recovery of the assets. Lack of clarity around the larger debts creating the appearance that the notes may be held by the owners and thus they have the opportunity to write off the losses but still cash out the real estate assets. Maybe even more asset abandonment accounting or accelerated depreciation write offs as well. They definitely could get a lot more from the open sites. We have a friend who lives a few blocks from an OC store still open and packed with merchandise, and she was allowed to buy a overflowing cart of any product for $20. She had a kids birthday coming up and jam packed the cart with toys, party supplies etc. And basically got hundreds of dollars of merchandise for $20 and ran the best party any of the parents had ever seen. They could easily extend the sale and get a better recovery but that does not seem to be the priority.
Rite Aid hasn't had locations in Texas since buying Katz & Besthoff, and those didn't last long after the purchase. However, they did operate RediClinic locations inside of 30+ HEB locations. They suddenly and quietly closed them at the end of 2020. The space was just left behind, closed off to some extent, but not emptied or even relinquished by Rite Aid until about a year ago. Speaking with a store manager, they weren't allowed to even touch the space because it was still rented out (last year), although most of the spaces have been released within the past year.