Retail Watchers

I passed by a recently subdivided Rite Aid store which was originally a Payless Drug Store.

The new signage says Thrifty Rite Aid Pharmacy. The Thrifty and Pharmacy are in white and the new Rite Aid logo is in the middle.

A portion of the store was recently converted to O'Reilly Auto Parts. The drug store was quite large to begin with and still is larger than a typical Rite Aid.

Suspect that they haven't yet replaced the "Ice Cream" sign--isn't that a boxed rectangular sign underneath the Thrifty script?

I think it's just being advertised as a feature. The Thrifty sign is not evenly aligned with the rest of the Rite Aid logo.

In any case it is interesting the Thrifty logo started showing up outside the stores again within the past five or so years on the stores with the ice cream counters.

I am guessing it is there for the ice cream though but it is definitely prominent.

storewanderer wrote: ↑April 22nd, 2021, 8:52 am In any case it is interesting the Thrifty logo started showing up outside the stores again within the past five or so years on the stores with the ice cream counters.

I am guessing it is there for the ice cream though but it is definitely prominent.

I didn't think there were many (CA) Rite Aids without ice cream counters. Even the very small store they built not that long ago in the Los Olivos Marketpalce in Irvine has one.

Of course, Rite Aid infamously raised the price of a single-scoop cone from 55c to 1.50c after they acquired Thrifty, although it hasn't increased much sense. Nostalgia seems to be kicking in, as it seems many new local businesses have been carrying and heavily marketing the ice cream in recent years...

Thrifty ice cream was introduced to the Eastern United States and many people have commented on how they love it.

Bagels wrote: ↑April 24th, 2021, 1:13 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑April 22nd, 2021, 8:52 am In any case it is interesting the Thrifty logo started showing up outside the stores again within the past five or so years on the stores with the ice cream counters.

I am guessing it is there for the ice cream though but it is definitely prominent.

I didn't think there were many (CA) Rite Aids without ice cream counters. Even the very small store they built not that long ago in the Los Olivos Marketpalce in Irvine has one.

Of course, Rite Aid infamously raised the price of a single-scoop cone from 55c to 1.50c after they acquired Thrifty, although it hasn't increased much sense. Nostalgia seems to be kicking in, as it seems many new local businesses have been carrying and heavily marketing the ice cream in recent years...

The single scoop ice cream pricing went about like this:
1990: .35
1992: (right as Thrifty exited Nevada) .59
1996: .79
1999: .99
then in the 00's there were a handfull of increases which got it to the current 1.99 (is it 1.99 now?)?

Where Rite Aid has kind of screwed up pricing is on the half gallons (or whatever size they are now). Old Thrifty Payless ran those at 2.99 and that was basically the everyday price. Sometimes it went on sale at 1.99. Rite Aid has escalated regular retail to 4.99 and keeps running promotions on them of varying degrees almost every week. Why not just go back to a fair everyday price and be done with the promotions?

yeah, when we were out in California and were craving ice cream, I ended up with two tubs rather than one from their sale pricing of regular 4.99 sale 2/$7...lol

I sometimes wonder how well the Thrifty ice cream would sell if supermarkets carried it. While there are great regional brands (such as Tillamook and Umpqua locally) their price point is high, especially when Tillamook recently shrunk their container size but kept pricing the same. Rite Aid isn't exactly a store I think about for ice cream, especially when stores like WinCo are in close proximity.

Super S wrote: ↑April 27th, 2021, 9:33 am I sometimes wonder how well the Thrifty ice cream would sell if supermarkets carried it.

Haggen actually sold Thrifty ice cream during their 6 month stay in California.