Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

[norcalriteaidclerk]

The HQ move to Philly has become a bigger head scratcher as store have quietly closed left and right even in the city of brotherly love (111 west Wyoming and 5694 rising sun being the latest casualties though the latter has an open location down the road at 5400 rising sun),at least ten Philadelphia locations have known to have closed within the past twelve months.

Thank goodness the chances of 5409 Sunrise clearancing out all of its Christmas items before Thanksgiving is lower than there being an 0-17 team in the NFL this season considering the store building is owned outright and not leased.

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[norcalriteaidclerk]

RAD stock quietly (and sadly)hit an all time low today(3.86 at close)even factoring the reverse stock split.Still,the stock price is mercifully not yet dire enough to trigger talk of a second reverse split... hopefully it stays that way.

Even more Christmas came in yesterday.Hopefully the chances of us having to hard-clearance it before Thanksgiving remain lower than the 'Krogersons' merger being approved and consummated without significant divestitures.Then again, without a clear financial turnaround plan by HQ...

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[storewanderer]

RAD stock quietly (and sadly)hit an all time low today(3.86 at close)even factoring the reverse stock split.Still,the stock price is mercifully not yet dire enough to trigger talk of a second reverse split... hopefully it stays that way.

Even more Christmas came in yesterday.Hopefully the chances of us having to hard-clearance it before Thanksgiving remain lower than the 'Krogersons' merger being approved and consummated without significant divestitures.Then again, without a clear financial turnaround plan by HQ...

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I've heard there is some rule on some mutual funds that they can't hold shares if the shares are below $5. So it is possible once the stock hit $5 some had to sell it, and it is bottomed out.

Turnaround plan seems to be "cut costs" which is painful.

[storewanderer]

South Lake Tahoe Store has NO Christmas merchandise (at least not on the sales floor), also still has the old pinpads at the checkouts. There are like 4 empty aisles around Seasonal so would think if they had even popcorn tubs they'd at least throw a few out onto the aisles. Quite a bit of Halloween, probably double-triple what Gardnerville received (hardly any).

Gardnerville store has a small assortment of Christmas merchandise and has received new pinpads at the checkouts within the past week. These new pinpads are drastically improved from the old pinpads for seeing coupons, etc. and the list of items/prices/coupons scanned is larger and stays on the screen while the yes/no bonus cash use question is there on the screen.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

So far our Christmas assortment on shelf is limited to bargain toys and holiday snacks (cookies and popcorn tins).We have an unopened accumulation of Christmas load spanning an aisle though per corporate directive can't be put out until the day after Halloween.

So far,the pin pads used at 5409 Sunrise are the same ones installed years ago.Also,when the plenti rewards program existed select SoCal locations received a rewards kiosk mimicking the extra care coupon kiosks at CVS, this may or may not still be the case in the go-forward locations.

I seriously hope that the loss of the San Jose Winchester Thrifty which closed a week or two after 900 Sunrise (lasted a lot longer as RAD than as longs did though it had the latter's 2000-ish interior to the end)is the last NorCal closure for the foreseeable future,but considering the fact that closures are still being announced in SoCal (on top of an unidentified Los Angeles county location either in the DTLA rimshot neighborhoods or in gateway cities bordering the OC set to close this week,the 1968-vintage Temple City Thrifty was recently notified of their closure according to a chat with a redditor)and NYC in mid-october I don't really know if I can optimistic about the company future anymore.

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[Jeff]

Temple City the last time I went about 5 months ago was a busy location still. I know the property was sold last year so possible that the new owners aren't extending their lease. I'm still shocked Alhambra is open at this point. Its a horrible store with no stock or staff.

[storewanderer]

Temple City the last time I went about 5 months ago was a busy location still. I know the property was sold last year so possible that the new owners aren't extending their lease. I'm still shocked Alhambra is open at this point. Its a horrible store with no stock or staff.

Unfortunately a lack of stock and a lack of staff describes more Rite Aid Stores than it should right now...

[storewanderer]

So far our Christmas assortment on shelf is limited to bargain toys and holiday snacks (cookies and popcorn tins).We have an unopened accumulation of Christmas load spanning an aisle though per corporate directive can't be put out until the day after Halloween.

So far,the pin pads used at 5409 Sunrise are the same ones installed years ago.Also,when the plenti rewards program existed select SoCal locations received a rewards kiosk mimicking the extra care coupon kiosks at CVS, this may or may not still be the case in the go-forward locations.

Maybe the South Lake Tahoe Store is confused about the directive and didn't put any Christmas out. It is limited what is out in Gardnerville, like you said, it is random stuff including popcorn tins, some random food items, and toys.

It is strange they don't want all of the stuff on the shelves as soon as possible, considering:
1. The shelves in many of these stores are empty, anything on the shelves is better than nothing
2. The stores are understaffed; it will be easier if the stores start putting Christmas stuff out now, slowly, over the next couple weeks, with a goal of having the Christmas area fully set by the day after Halloween; Christmas isn't easy to set, it takes significant time and effort.

The store in Quincy used to have one of those Wellness Kiosks, that was a Wellness remodel done right as the Walgreens deal was announced the first time, it is gone now though. It never had many coupons available. That was the only one of those kiosks I ever saw.

[Alpha8472]

Perhaps the Kroger and Albertsons merger would help Rite Aid. They say a company called Spin Co. might be created. What if that company was able to buy Rite Aid?

[storewanderer]

Perhaps the Kroger and Albertsons merger would help Rite Aid. They say a company called Spin Co. might be created. What if that company was able to buy Rite Aid?

That ship sailed. You will not see Rite Aid folded into Kroger or Safeway. Also there is a rumor that Rite Aid has some kind of a non compete agreement with Walgreens for the markets it left. That was supposedly one of the reasons the Albertsons merger was canceled (depending who you ask; shareholders never got to vote on it, the merger was canceled the day before the vote): merging Rite Aid into Albertsons which competed with Walgreens in some markets that Rite Aid left would violate such non-compete agreement. Not even sure what regions would have been a problem; CO/UT/some randoms in MD/DC/New England I guess. Other people say the reason the Albertsons merger was canceled was because Rite Aid knew the shareholders wouldn't approve it so they canceled the vote. So who knows.