Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Alpha8472
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

Many hospitals used Remdesivir a couple of years ago. Some hospitals still use it, but Paxlovid has been shown to be much more effective. Hospitals make a ton of money by charging insurances for more medications. So the hospital will try to bill for expensive Remdesivir even though studies show disappointing results with regard to effectiveness.

Every little bit helps, but the hospital probably just wanted to make more of a profit.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

I think the treatment protocols may vary somewhat by state. It is unfortunate this whole thing has been so confusing and not straightforward.

Would be nice to see whatever the best option to treat this just be OTC at this point at least for the duration of the public health emergency. But then I'm afraid people would hoard the stuff.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

Paxlovid has been really effective for my pharmacy customers. It really reduces the symptoms and makes COVID much less severe. It is in pill form, so you don't need an IV drugs injected into you.

Pharmacists in California can now dispense Paxlovid without a prescription from a doctor. However, you have to test positive and get an evaluation by a pharmacist. That consultation has a fee.

Many people from other countries are coming to the US to take advantage and get free Paxlovid paid for by the taxpayers. After, the COVID emergency is ended in May the government will probably stop forcing pharmacies to give Paxlovid away for free. Then pharmacies could charge the people from other countries who previously got it for free.

Insured people will still get it for zero copay.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Alpha8472 wrote: February 23rd, 2023, 4:25 pm Paxlovid has been really effective for my pharmacy customers. It really reduces the symptoms and makes COVID much less severe. It is in pill form, so you don't need an IV drugs injected into you.

Pharmacists in California can now dispense Paxlovid without a prescription from a doctor. However, you have to test positive and get an evaluation by a pharmacist. That consultation has a fee.

Many people from other countries are coming to the US to take advantage and get free Paxlovid paid for by the taxpayers. After, the COVID emergency is ended in May the government will probably stop forcing pharmacies to give Paxlovid away for free. Then pharmacies could charge the people from other countries who previously got it for free.

Insured people will still get it for zero copay.
Maybe the COVID Emergency will extend beyond May, but I think it may actually end this time. I noticed they added the COVID Vaccines to the child immunization list at the national level so that will protect the vaccine makers from liabilities after the emergency ends. I think that was a matter that needed to be resolved before the emergency could end, among others. Also luckily this seems to have been a pretty mild flu season. Yet drugstores still have a ton of out of stocks on cough/cold.

This is so off topic... but I am glad we don't have Rite Aid closures to report.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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I visited my local Rite Aid around 8:30 PM. It was very quiet with few customers. The pharmacy was open until 9 and the store was open until 10. The prescription pharmacy seems to be very slow at night. I can see why many pharmacy chains are thinking about reducing hours to close at 7. People simply are not staying out late anymore. Where did all of the customers go?

There were so many empty spaces without merchandise. Many items were very low in stock. It looked like it was going out of business. There was much less variety in the food department than years before. Not much seemed to be appealing price wise. It looked really sad.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Alpha8472 wrote: February 26th, 2023, 1:17 am I visited my local Rite Aid around 8:30 PM. It was very quiet with few customers. The pharmacy was open until 9 and the store was open until 10. The prescription pharmacy seems to be very slow at night. I can see why many pharmacy chains are thinking about reducing hours to close at 7. People simply are not staying out late anymore. Where did all of the customers go?

There were so many empty spaces without merchandise. Many items were very low in stock. It looked like it was going out of business. There was much less variety in the food department than years before. Not much seemed to be appealing price wise. It looked really sad.
Pricing wise Saturday night is not a good time to walk drug stores looking for deals because they have taken down the ad tags/sale signs for the existing ad, and have usually not yet put up the new ad tags/sale signs for the ad starting Sunday. Some Walgreens will put the ad tags up Saturday night (and activate the sale a little early) but CVS/Rite Aid do not do that.

I too was at Rite Aid and it is not stocked well and it seems like business is even slower than it was six months ago. For instance this past week Rite Aid had a deal of spend $50 get $10 Bonus Cash. Typically I can do that offer and roll some Bonus Cash but the problem is their in-stock levels are so bad both in the store and on their website that I couldn't figure out how to do a worthwhile deal this week that made sense for me. I had a few ideas but when trying the website then going to the store not enough items I wanted in stock to make it happen. I can usually throw something together when they run that deal.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: February 26th, 2023, 1:23 am Pricing wise Saturday night is not a good time to walk drug stores looking for deals because they have taken down the ad tags/sale signs for the existing ad, and have usually not yet put up the new ad tags/sale signs for the ad starting Sunday. Some Walgreens will put the ad tags up Saturday night (and activate the sale a little early) but CVS/Rite Aid do not do that.
Actually, CVS does (or at least did) do just that. They may not have put up the tags, but the ad gets activated in the registers sometime Saturday afternoon.
Not that I ever ran into it, but people used to go then specifically to get deals where a coupon expired on Saturday, but they could use it towards something that wasn't technically on sale until the following day.
Also had to watch, as the register would sometimes do odd things if there were sales/deals (like ECB) both weeks, it might choose one over the other depending on what it thought was better.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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BillyGr wrote: February 26th, 2023, 11:34 am

Actually, CVS does (or at least did) do just that. They may not have put up the tags, but the ad gets activated in the registers sometime Saturday afternoon.
Not that I ever ran into it, but people used to go then specifically to get deals where a coupon expired on Saturday, but they could use it towards something that wasn't technically on sale until the following day.
Also had to watch, as the register would sometimes do odd things if there were sales/deals (like ECB) both weeks, it might choose one over the other depending on what it thought was better.
CVS used to do early activation of the ad at almost all former Longs Stores around 4 PM or 6 PM on Saturday. The former Sav-On and new build CVS Stores never did early activation of the ad so it was a bit strange here in Reno where some CVS did this early activation and some did not.

When they stopped doing this around here, about 3 years ago, at those former Longs Stores, the word was it was CVS corporate policy that they were no longer to do early activation of ads on Saturday afternoon/evening. However I am still seeing scattered reports of people who use coupons in some parts of the US who say they still get early activation in limited locations.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

To get this back on track,some observations:Visited Sacramento Marconi(a traditionally busy store and a success story from the customer world era)a couple weeks back.Parts of aisles were disused,but not blocked off unlike other locations that have shelved off multiple rear aisles(my store included),and a clearance wall occupies some the otherwise disused space.While even good stores like this one haven't been immune from frequent out-of-stocks that have been prevalent chainwide,I did manage to drop in on a truckload day which explains totes and/or pallets on the sales floor.I must also note that their staffing is in transition as well:issues with staffing and stocking levels were noted in Nextdoor postings a month or two ago,but the conditions I encountered weren't nearly as dire as reported on Nextdoor not to mention that I still found what I was looking for there and obviously didn't leave emptyhanded.They also still have a working Fuji digital photo machine though years ago they had three(a Western Union kiosk sits in a spot previously occupied by a removed photo machine).

So far,store closures in 2023 have been minimal(net loss of just 14 stores in the first couple months which is way fewer than at this point last year),though it still feels like a false sense of security as the c-suite has been tight lipped since 'the former gal' left. and there's likely at least a month of this before the FY2023 final report.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Just when we were lulled into a false sense of security in the wake of the Heyward Donigan departure,the caretaker regime of Elizabeth 'Busy' Burr has just been served up a government lawsuit in connection with opioid violations dating back to the John Standley era.Oh,did I forget to mention that shares of RAD stock took a 19% beating today to finish at $2.66 just three cents above the all-time low(factoring in the 2019 reverse-stock split)set earlier in today's trading session?[Further proof that this company sorely needs a positive FY2023Q4 result which won't be known for roughly another month.Everyone wants to see this listing shrink and not get bloated.
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