Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

[storewanderer]

I have no idea who this new CEO is or what happened with the now previous CEO but based on how things were going in recent months I am not surprised.

The thing here is how much damage has been done under the tenure of the now previous CEO? They closed the corporate HQ, they have closed a lot of stores, they seem to have no remodel program at this point, they have cut significant amounts of merchandise/inventory from the stores (many dead categories but the stores look unhealthy with all of the empty space). Many stores that operated with significantly reduced pharmacy hours during 2022/reduced store hours with reductions far more drastic than the competition appear to be permanently damaged (Truckee may as well just close at this point what was once a VERY high volume popular store; and it appears trouble in OR like this North Bend closure may have been caused by this issue too; closer to me for the store I am most familiar with in Gardnerville the Rite Aid pharmacy has steady traffic but rarely any lines anymore; it used to have lines; meanwhile I keep seeing long lines at the Wal Mart and Smiths pharmacies in Gardnerville where I never used to see lines). Really my view at this point is Rite Aid's stores look worse than they looked in the late 90's under Martin Grass. They have less merchandise than before, seem to be maintained worse than before, and have less staffing than before.

I am glad the BOD appears to have recognized that things were going in the wrong direction and I hope they can do something quickly to get merchandise back into the stores and at the same time get a remodel program going again. I have wondered how much of the problem was the previous CEO and how much of the problem was just having her hands tied based on the finances of the company limiting just what they can do.

I am still concerned we are about to see Walgreens and CVS have their biggest and best meal ever doing a slice and dice of Rite Aid.

[Super S]

Rite Aid actually had decent looking stores over the last few years and was doing some nice looking remodels. I think they moved in the wrong direction with their rebranding and the rush to get the new logo on all of their stores. Foot traffic in the stores I have visited seems lower than before, and maintenance issues are popping up. The money spent on all of the signs would have been better spent doing some maintenance and bringing staff back to normal levels. Rite Aid would have done just as well to leave signs intact and do a more gradual replacement as the individual stores were remodeled (as Kmart did during the 1990s) or when existing signs burned out etc.

I am seeing more foot traffic in Walgreens stores lately which isn't saying much....many of those stores have the same maintenance and staffing issues as Rite Aid. Perhaps the new signs are driving people away? I don't know.

[ClownLoach]

I have no idea who this new CEO is or what happened with the now previous CEO but based on how things were going in recent months I am not surprised.

The thing here is how much damage has been done under the tenure of the now previous CEO? They closed the corporate HQ, they have closed a lot of stores, they seem to have no remodel program at this point, they have cut significant amounts of merchandise/inventory from the stores (many dead categories but the stores look unhealthy with all of the empty space). Many stores that operated with significantly reduced pharmacy hours during 2022/reduced store hours with reductions far more drastic than the competition appear to be permanently damaged (Truckee may as well just close at this point what was once a VERY high volume popular store; and it appears trouble in OR like this North Bend closure may have been caused by this issue too; closer to me for the store I am most familiar with in Gardnerville the Rite Aid pharmacy has steady traffic but rarely any lines anymore; it used to have lines; meanwhile I keep seeing long lines at the Wal Mart and Smiths pharmacies in Gardnerville where I never used to see lines). Really my view at this point is Rite Aid's stores look worse than they looked in the late 90's under Martin Grass. They have less merchandise than before, seem to be maintained worse than before, and have less staffing than before.

I am glad the BOD appears to have recognized that things were going in the wrong direction and I hope they can do something quickly to get merchandise back into the stores and at the same time get a remodel program going again. I have wondered how much of the problem was the previous CEO and how much of the problem was just having her hands tied based on the finances of the company limiting just what they can do.

I am still concerned we are about to see Walgreens and CVS have their biggest and best meal ever doing a slice and dice of Rite Aid.

From my perspective, execution of retail basics and standards has been poor at best the last couple of years at Rite Aid. Empty endcaps, out of stocks in the front end queue, and nonsense merchandising (where random items with no relationship are just slopped onto fixtures like Big Lots). The inability to maintain any level of staffing, the locations closing early etc. seem to be affecting Rite Aid more than their competitors. It feels like certain stores are, intentionally or unintentionally, neglected until they no longer perform then they are closed. The CEO deemed to be too refocused on ineffective turnaround tactics: new signs, a fancy prototype that never really got rolled out (when there was nothing wrong with the wellness prototype that was the best looking drugstore on the market), poorly thought out acquisition of Bartell, and removal of merchandise categories that got replaced with nothing. I would hope that they find a new CEO who can immediately improve store standards and basics - get stores staffed, back on good routines to improve cleanliness and maintenance, fix in stocks, and figure out which items need to come back to the assortment to fix the sales problem. It feels like the stores lack supervision. Either they have given field leadership too many stores to manage effectively, or they have the wrong field leadership.

[veteran+]

I do not believe the talent pool for CEOs or any C Suite folks are very good.

The same mediocrity just gets recycled around with no accountability and lots of excuses.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

I have no idea who this new CEO is or what happened with the now previous CEO but based on how things were going in recent months I am not surprised.

The thing here is how much damage has been done under the tenure of the now previous CEO? They closed the corporate HQ, they have closed a lot of stores, they seem to have no remodel program at this point, they have cut significant amounts of merchandise/inventory from the stores (many dead categories but the stores look unhealthy with all of the empty space). Many stores that operated with significantly reduced pharmacy hours during 2022/reduced store hours with reductions far more drastic than the competition appear to be permanently damaged (Truckee may as well just close at this point what was once a VERY high volume popular store; and it appears trouble in OR like this North Bend closure may have been caused by this issue too; closer to me for the store I am most familiar with in Gardnerville the Rite Aid pharmacy has steady traffic but rarely any lines anymore; it used to have lines; meanwhile I keep seeing long lines at the Wal Mart and Smiths pharmacies in Gardnerville where I never used to see lines). Really my view at this point is Rite Aid's stores look worse than they looked in the late 90's under Martin Grass. They have less merchandise than before, seem to be maintained worse than before, and have less staffing than before.

I am glad the BOD appears to have recognized that things were going in the wrong direction and I hope they can do something quickly to get merchandise back into the stores and at the same time get a remodel program going again. I have wondered how much of the problem was the previous CEO and how much of the problem was just having her hands tied based on the finances of the company limiting just what they can do.

I am still concerned we are about to see Walgreens and CVS have their biggest and best meal ever doing a slice and dice of Rite Aid.

I really hope the final paragraph of that post doesn't hold true considering that I'm several months away from my next employment milestone (25 years with RAD).I also hope that my store(still stuck in 2003 and in disrepair especially concerning the roof) isn't in the 'permanently damaged' category considering its tumultuous 2022(reduced operational hours for long periods as well as the departures of quite a few 'adults in the room' colleagues that i worked with for at least 20 months with rock bottom with the late August departure of the previous store manager that was little more than an avatar of how badly the company was run by now-former CEO heyward donigan)and despite efforts of the transferred 900 Sunrise management to save my store.Then again the appointment of a caretaker CEO may or may not necessarily stop further planned closures (three Manhattan closures have already been officially announced,plus reported closures of Los Angeles Hyde Park and North bend Oregon).

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[storewanderer]

I do not believe the talent pool for CEOs or any C Suite folks are very good.

The same mediocrity just gets recycled around with no accountability and lots of excuses.

Lack of competition hurts when it comes to building up a bench of emerging executives. There are so few largely pure play drugstore chains like Rite Aid around (I know they have the small PBM too but it is so small). Walgreens hired a CEO who at least had some retail experience (from Sam's Club). CVS gets so much of its revenue out of health services/PBM at this point that it really isn't even the same type of company as Rite Aid.

[storewanderer]

I really hope the final paragraph of that post doesn't hold true considering that I'm several months away from my next employment milestone (25 years with RAD).I also hope that my store(still stuck in 2003 and in disrepair especially concerning the roof) isn't in the 'permanently damaged' category considering its tumultuous 2022(reduced operational hours for long periods as well as the departures of quite a few 'adults in the room' colleagues that i worked with for at least 20 months with rock bottom with the late August departure of the previous store manager that was little more than an avatar of how badly the company was run by now-former CEO heyward donigan)and despite efforts of the transferred 900 Sunrise management to save my store.Then again the appointment of a caretaker CEO may or may not necessarily stop further planned closures (three Manhattan closures have already been officially announced,plus reported closures of Los Angeles Hyde Park and North bend Oregon).

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I think the situation will have to stabilize here to some degree. Inventory levels got a little better the past couple of weeks and they seem to be bringing back a few discontinued items slowly. The average customer won't notice any of this and the stores likely still look pretty bad to the average customer; more drastic restocking and re-merchandising is needed. If there was a pending acquisition I have to think they would have kept the former CEO on board to facilitate that. So I don't think there is a pending acquisition, the most telling part will be how long it takes them to find a CEO again so this interim CEO can just go back to sitting on the Board of Directors.

I have seen firsthand what happens to an "abandoned by almost all managers/employees" store with Truckee and it isn't pretty. Slowly, they are trying to get it back- front end closes at 8 PM now. Pharmacy is still 9-6 M-F and closed weekends. And that used to be a solidly run high volume store. Busy ALL the time. Mob scene many weekends. It is well located at the very busy shopping center with Safeway and there are no excuses for what is happening. It has one of the nicest Wellness remodels. South Lake Tahoe is interesting in that its problems were more with the store than the pharmacy.

I did not expect a CEO exit but the way the now former CEO's strategy seemed to go on hold (no more store remodels) last year spoke volumes.

[ClownLoach]

One surprise: apparently the long mothballed Murrieta/Winchester store has opened. I saw a few pictures on LinkedIn from a connection and it appears to be some version of the new prototype but not what the investor presentation looked like. Pictures appeared very plain; lighting is ordinary recessed fluorescent type fixtures instead of the fancy can lights and such they were using in the Wellness stores. I suspect they just threw this together to get it open as cheaply as possible. I'll go check it out and see how it is.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

One surprise: apparently the long mothballed Murrieta/Winchester store has opened. I saw a few pictures on LinkedIn from a connection and it appears to be some version of the new prototype but not what the investor presentation looked like. Pictures appeared very plain; lighting is ordinary recessed fluorescent type fixtures instead of the fancy can lights and such they were using in the Wellness stores. I suspect they just threw this together to get it open as cheaply as possible. I'll go check it out and see how it is.

I would be interested to see how well or poorly this new store is merchandised.While 'the former gal' has not been proven engage in the same fraudulent activities that befell Martin Grass(the details of the sudden departure of heyward donigan remain unexplained with many unanswered questions),her regime's corporate merchandising decisions were clearly even worse that that of the disgraced younger Grass.It seems that her regime basically flipped both middle fingers at the West Coast just for the sake of trying to merchandise every location as if it was in her hometown of Virginia Beach.I don't recall that much non-core merchandise being phased out during my first year or two with RAD.

There is now a fourth press-verified 2023 closure this being in Jamestown, NY (a Buffalo suburb/exurb that will still have at least one RAD location remaining). I'm still treating North Bend Oregon and Los Angeles Hyde Park as unconfirmed due to lack of local news stories or recent Google Maps/Yelp reviews to back things up.
https://wnynewsnow.com/2023/01/12/james ... y-closing/
https://www.post-journal.com/news/lates ... wn-stores/

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[storewanderer]

One surprise: apparently the long mothballed Murrieta/Winchester store has opened. I saw a few pictures on LinkedIn from a connection and it appears to be some version of the new prototype but not what the investor presentation looked like. Pictures appeared very plain; lighting is ordinary recessed fluorescent type fixtures instead of the fancy can lights and such they were using in the Wellness stores. I suspect they just threw this together to get it open as cheaply as possible. I'll go check it out and see how it is.

Only the "better" Wellness remodels got those can lights. Most Wellness Stores didn't get new lights. It makes sense most of the stores around SoCal you see got the better lights since those are the better stores.

Rite Aid Rio Linda, CA was one of the latest new builds I know of in NorCal, built as a Wellness Store, and it does not have the can lights either. It has more department store style lights. Rite Aid Susanville opened around 2016 (relocation) and it also does not have the can lights but the more department store style lights. Rite Aid Quincy, CA was a very late Wellness remodel (last one I know of that was done in NorCal- right around the time of the Walgreens merger falling apart) and it kept the recessed lighting (this store is a real dive but still better than it looked as a Thrifty).

I would expect the new store interior to look good. If it doesn't, that will be a real departure.... because Rite Aid always has put out a nice looking new store even if the layouts were weird.