Retail Watchers

An interesting update about the Longview, WA store I mentioned. It has been without exterior signs for nearly a month now. They are actually repainting the entire upper half of the building (the lower half is brick) to a more bluish color before installing the new signs. The weird part about this is, as I said earlier, this store was repainted and received new LED signage in the old logo as part of a remodel just last year. I get painting areas around the signs to cover up old letters etc., but don't think it was really necessary to change the color for new signs. This is a very odd time of year to be painting with the colder temps and snow in the forecast.

Same thing in Gardnerville, NV; the building sign was gone for weeks. For the sign out at the road, they did make that switchover in a single process (took the old sign down then immediately put a new sign up).

The store in South Lake Tahoe, CA still has the old sign- the one installed when they took Payless over despite that the store has had a remodel (I think it is difficult to put new signs up there); same for the store in Truckee, CA (not sure what the hold up there is). Around Sacramento some have the new sign and some do not.

Finally saw the new logo on a store the other day-on a late '90's build they picked up in the Eckerd deal. And they also painted the building here as well but honestly it did need it since it actually was original from Eckerd-all they did was change the sign when they took the store over. Overall, looked pretty good-they did a nice job with it. Now I need an opinion here-I don't know it it's just me but the combination of blue and gray they used actually made the place look like a Wal Mart if I didn't know better. The color scheme used on this particular unit seemed very similar.

Many, though not all in Detroit metro have the new sign--the one which doesn't is in a suburban downtown (Berkley) where signage is a delicate subject--RA is tucked just behind the old movie theatre (with marquee) so they're sensitive about how they're perceived. This is a strong RA area (as is all of lower-peninsula MI) which didn't have any divestitures, even with locations as close apart as 1 1/2 miles (roughly matching CVS density).

Rite Aid retained good density in CA, MI, and PA after the divesting off of stores to Walgreens. I think they could have retained good density in the mid-Atlantic region as well but instead opted to sell 50% to 75% of the stores off to Walgreens there and just keep random stores spread around.

And I guess we could say good density in WA thanks to the purchase of Bartell.

storewanderer wrote: ↑February 10th, 2021, 5:09 pm Rite Aid retained good density in CA, MI, and PA after the divesting off of stores to Walgreens. I think they could have retained good density in the mid-Atlantic region as well but instead opted to sell 50% to 75% of the stores off to Walgreens there and just keep random stores spread around.

And I guess we could say good density in WA thanks to the purchase of Bartell.

Rite Aid density is mixed depending on the area. A lot of the existing markets were due to the purchase of PayLess, and in some areas they haven't added many stores. Vancouver, WA for instance only has two Rite Aid locations, but many Walgreens locations. Bartell didn't operate far outside the Seattle area.

The stores in Wyandotte, MI; Melvindale, MI; and Taylor, MI so far have the new sign. The Wyandotte store even kept it's awning.

Yesterday I drove past the store in Riverview, MI store and noticed that the building sign on that store was removed and a nice labelscar left behind. The road sign still has the old sign, though. The entire strip in which this store is located had just been completely repainted last year, so I doubt it'll get repainted again.

A few months back I also saw a store in Toledo, OH that had the new sign, and that was in fact the first time I saw the new sign in person.

I saw a Rite Aid with a new sign. It said Thrifty Rite Aid Pharmacy with the Green Rite Aid logo in the middle. The Thrifty was in white and slightly smaller than then Rite Aid letters, it really does look like it says Thrifty Rite Aid Pharmacy. It certainly caught my eye.

This store recently split up a small section and let O'Reilly Auto Parts take over part of the building. However, this former Payless is still a large store.

Logo change is starting to flow through on the private label items now.

The package redesign that was being done where the Rite Aid logo was moved to the bottom left corner of the packaging is the new packaging format (many packages have already been re-done to this format but the old logo is on the packages still).

Now the items have have the new Rite Aid logo, they don't say Rite Aid anywhere on the front of the package. They almost look like 80's generics with more color.

So far can see this on some first aid items and a limited number of vitamins.

TV ads have started for “your whole health pharmacy.” With the exception of a side campaign for Kroger pharmacies, I’ve not seen a pharmacy advertised on TV here for years (maybe a national Walgreens ad or two).