Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

[storewanderer]

11 of 27 show as closed in New York (Manhattan). 4 of 34 in Brooklyn. 4 of 14 in Bronx. 2 of 3 in Astoria (Queens). 1 of 1 in Forest Hills (Queens).
1 of 2 in Jersey City NJ; 1 of 2 in Edison, NJ
1 of 2 in Novi, MI; 1 of 4 in Jackson, MI; 1 of 1 in Birmingham, MI (this was one I mentioned before upthread; tiny in-line store buried behind a huge parking lot in an upscale suburb which was formerly an Arbor Drug; I cleaned them out of clearance stuff last summer). 1 of 3 in East Lansing (the logical one to close; small strip center near Michigan State University; in 1981-1985 had an A&P at one end and a Cunningham Drugs at the other; rather similar situation to the one in Birmingham, MI...tiny obsolescent old store; could not be expanded and doubtless significantly impacted by COVID-based reduction in student traffic..

Interesting a second similar store not far from the above mentioned Troy store is staying put (inline store though next to a Plum Market (upscale busy local grocer) and actually has longer pharmacy hours than most of the nearby stores.

In other words, the closures in Michigan seem eminently sensible--small old stores with nearby options. These (fortunately) are hardly root/branch reductions--merely judicious pruning, TBH.

In the Google Map of East Lansing there is a very odd logo on their sign. What is that logo of?

[Romr123]

That is the Spartan caricature for Michigan State. Has been on there as long as I remember. F

[norcalriteaidclerk]

Even in El Lay the closures aren't slowing down:Echo Park(Glendale/Alvarado)closes on the 19th according to a tweeter.Surprising that in a state where 60-day WARN-notices have long been customary the closures that have occurred within the past six months have been occurring with just days or weeks of advance notice.There has to be more to some of these closures than the five-finger-shopping excuse,given that there are a lot of things going on without rhyme or reason behind the scenes.The 1125 Alhambra closure basically was with just a few days notice.I must note that we did receive a vendor shipment today.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

[storewanderer]

Even in El Lay the closures aren't slowing down:Echo Park(Glendale/Alvarado)closes on the 19th according to a tweeter.Surprising that in a state where 60-day WARN-notices have long been customary the closures that have occurred within the past six months have been occurring with just days or weeks of advance notice.There has to be more to some of these closures than the five-finger-shopping excuse,given that there are a lot of things going on without rhyme or reason behind the scenes.The 1125 Alhambra closure basically was with just a few days notice.I must note that we did receive a vendor shipment today.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

What is happening with these, are they paying the laid off employees for the 60 days? Or are they thinking the closures aren't subject to WARN since they have less than 50 employees?

Or is the situation that they plan to transfer employees nearby to staying open locations so it is a moot point?

At this point the sooner these closures take place, the sooner this ends. Short of them issuing a list of upcoming closures (which doesn't seem like it will happen) I think at this point it is best to just hope this happens as fast as possible and once they are done closing stores they come out and say it.

There was a regional grocery chain in Reno that closed a lot of stores 8-9 years ago, it seemed like one after another (leases were expiring). A lot of long term employees who were just wondering every day if their store was next (or the ones in the stores with closed pharmacies wondering when they would close for good). After the last closure which was of their second newest store they came out and said- "this is the last of the closures." And they held to that. They didn't close any more stores. They were also not very sneaky with the closures as they often closed the pharmacy many months before closing the rest of the store. There was one store that pharmacy was still open when they announced closure (seemed like a surprise closure) but that was the only time. They did sell 6 stores to Raleys 5 years later.

[ClownLoach]

Noticed Fountain Valley, CA next to Ralphs on Brookhurst St. has disappeared. I know this was originally a PayLess Drugs. No idea where the prescription files went. Not so much as a piece of paper in the windows, it's blacked out like they were never there.

That location has been gone a month or two(as I stated earlier in this thread).Payless Super Drug Store's first stab at SoCal failed back in the 1970's(most locations went to savon).After NW acquired Oakland based PSD in 1980,they made another foray into the south state.Of those locations, Brea and San Diego/Black mountain for sure(possibly other SoCal locations I can't think of offhand)are still open as RAD.

I must note that Deutsche Bank has been accused(at least in the USA anyway) of enabling money laundering (including activities associated with terrorists),and that spear point offer is looking more and more suspect (on top of not a squeak being heard since then,also do they even have the funds required to acquire a late company with the scope of RAD?!).Now if George Hill was associated with a less checkered entity (Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley),then his words would be easier to take seriously.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

Whether it is Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo or the Motley Fool the facts are the facts. I'll remind you that the Financials are public documents that come from the company and are required to be 100% factual and independently audited. Basically if you're accusing the numbers Deutsche is repeating of being false then you're saying that a whole lot of people at RAD are going to be spending very long sentences in federal prison. Which seems unlikely since all Deutsche is doing is reporting the news (public financial data which is beyond dispute). The finances being repeated state one way or another RAD contractually obligated themselves to spend $400M a year over break even between required upgrades and financing. There is zero evidence that Rite Aid is doing fantastically better than expected in sales and profit. Deutsche feared they would make less. And now they have to either rapidly make an extra $123 million in profit or cut that much in expenses or they will go $123 million in the red. Don't blame the messenger here they have nothing to do with it.

[Jeff]

Went into the non-closing Alhambra Rite-Aid yesterday. The store is in a sad state. Only one employee in the whole store (not including pharmacy. there may have been more in the back but I didnt see any on the floor itself), full aisles were empty with "new stuff coming soon" all over, and not a lot of stock at all. It has not been remodeled since it was taken over by Rite Aid. I remember this store always being busy, had a food counter, and a rear entrance. Also, the store was musty and warm.

[storewanderer]

Went into the non-closing Alhambra Rite-Aid yesterday. The store is in a sad state. Only one employee in the whole store (not including pharmacy. there may have been more in the back but I didnt see any on the floor itself), full aisles were empty with "new stuff coming soon" all over, and not a lot of stock at all. It has not been remodeled since it was taken over by Rite Aid. I remember this store always being busy, had a food counter, and a rear entrance. Also, the store was musty and warm.

This is typical even for those RA1 stores like Alhambra. They cut out various non-core categories in 2020 (housewares, sporting goods, electronics, and such) which led to empty aisles. They never seemed to figure out what to fill the aisles with. I assumed it was part of the "wellness" initiative and they'd focus on more alternative-type products but that is not how it went. They did stretch toys and expand pets but that only filled up a small amount of the space that opened up. What you are describing is typical for the chain and what I have been seeing for a while. After waiting over a year for changes I finally came to reality and accepted the situation and took a huge loss on the shares I held in Rite Aid. What is funny is the stock actually bounced up about 20% in the weeks after I sold it but since then it keeps falling and at this point is 60% less than what I sold it for so I made the right decision given the options at the time (I kept it way more years than I should have).

I was in multiple CVS today and saw only one employee in front of store. In one store I saw no employees at all outside pharmacy, until I raised a stink about a person who scanned everything on the one open self checkout, then pretended to pay (put card in reader but didn't actually process card) and left. They had their bell in a place the customer couldn't reach it so I went looking and found an employee in the stockroom. Employee came and first tried to get my to add my items to that transaction and pay for all of it. I said wait a minute I only have these two items here- those other items were the guy in front of me who was having trouble with the machine and left... This is very common for these drugstore chains.

What was even funnier at CVS was when they did the transaction void on the self checkout, there are various reasons. One of the "reasons" is "suspected theft." Of course the employee rather than using that reason selected the reason "system issue." I guess it wasn't suspected theft- it was theft. So perhaps that is why they did not use that reason.

[ClownLoach]

Went into the non-closing Alhambra Rite-Aid yesterday. The store is in a sad state. Only one employee in the whole store (not including pharmacy. there may have been more in the back but I didnt see any on the floor itself), full aisles were empty with "new stuff coming soon" all over, and not a lot of stock at all. It has not been remodeled since it was taken over by Rite Aid. I remember this store always being busy, had a food counter, and a rear entrance. Also, the store was musty and warm.

This is typical even for those RA1 stores like Alhambra. They cut out various non-core categories in 2020 (housewares, sporting goods, electronics, and such) which led to empty aisles. They never seemed to figure out what to fill the aisles with. I assumed it was part of the "wellness" initiative and they'd focus on more alternative-type products but that is not how it went. They did stretch toys and expand pets but that only filled up a small amount of the space that opened up. What you are describing is typical for the chain and what I have been seeing for a while. After waiting over a year for changes I finally came to reality and accepted the situation and took a huge loss on the shares I held in Rite Aid. What is funny is the stock actually bounced up about 20% in the weeks after I sold it but since then it keeps falling and at this point is 60% less than what I sold it for so I made the right decision given the options at the time (I kept it way more years than I should have).

I was in multiple CVS today and saw only one employee in front of store. In one store I saw no employees at all outside pharmacy, until I raised a stink about a person who scanned everything on the one open self checkout, then pretended to pay (put card in reader but didn't actually process card) and left. They had their bell in a place the customer couldn't reach it so I went looking and found an employee in the stockroom. Employee came and first tried to get my to add my items to that transaction and pay for all of it. I said wait a minute I only have these two items here- those other items were the guy in front of me who was having trouble with the machine and left... This is very common for these drugstore chains.

What was even funnier at CVS was when they did the transaction void on the self checkout, there are various reasons. One of the "reasons" is "suspected theft." Of course the employee rather than using that reason selected the reason "system issue." I guess it wasn't suspected theft- it was theft. So perhaps that is why they did not use that reason.

This entire liquidation of categories that were not replaced is another indication of the cash flow and possibly vendor confidence issue. I also doubted the Deutsche assessment that they would completely be worthless with less than a $400M EBIT but that was before the story about the $123M fine/judgment/whatever they have to pay. It's entirely likely that Rite Aid not only needed money last year fast - so they liquidated already paid for slow movers like housewares - but they thought that would be replaceable with new product lines this year. Problem is that both supply chain issues and questions about their financial health probably caused any new vendor lined up to walk away, and their existing vendors couldn't or wouldn't make up for the now vacated space. The supply chain crisis seems now to be focused on specialities not mainstream items. You see a few hot spots in grocery and pharmacy at grocery stores and Walmart/Target but overall those departments are back to normal there and at the other big chains. It is financially challenged companies like Rite Aid where you still see empty shelves everywhere, and aside from that niche specialty stores like Michaels. But overall there is no reason I should walk into a CVS and see full aisles then walk across the street to Rite Aid and see an empty store - especially when we know that the operational execution and on hand integrity at CVS is almost non existent. The useless labor consultants have told companies like CVS not to scan their out of stocks except on a limited basis to cut labor; Rite Aid and other old school companies are not likely to tell their managers to do the same because they don't have millions to waste on those cubicle dwelling idiots like Accenture who have never worked in a store before.

[storewanderer]

This entire liquidation of categories that were not replaced is another indication of the cash flow and possibly vendor confidence issue. I also doubted the Deutsche assessment that they would completely be worthless with less than a $400M EBIT but that was before the story about the $123M fine/judgment/whatever they have to pay. It's entirely likely that Rite Aid not only needed money last year fast - so they liquidated already paid for slow movers like housewares - but they thought that would be replaceable with new product lines this year. Problem is that both supply chain issues and questions about their financial health probably caused any new vendor lined up to walk away, and their existing vendors couldn't or wouldn't make up for the now vacated space. The supply chain crisis seems now to be focused on specialities not mainstream items. You see a few hot spots in grocery and pharmacy at grocery stores and Walmart/Target but overall those departments are back to normal there and at the other big chains. It is financially challenged companies like Rite Aid where you still see empty shelves everywhere, and aside from that niche specialty stores like Michaels. But overall there is no reason I should walk into a CVS and see full aisles then walk across the street to Rite Aid and see an empty store - especially when we know that the operational execution and on hand integrity at CVS is almost non existent. The useless labor consultants have told companies like CVS not to scan their out of stocks except on a limited basis to cut labor; Rite Aid and other old school companies are not likely to tell their managers to do the same because they don't have millions to waste on those cubicle dwelling idiots like Accenture who have never worked in a store before.

I think the categories liquidated were very very underperforming in many Rite Aid Stores. They were not priced competitively, they did run some sales in the categories but I think even with the sales they just did not move much merchandise in the categories anymore.

Rite Aid seems to have its on hands under control one store where I do online orders has always fulfilled my orders 100%. Granted the store has little business and almost no theft. Walgreens frequently cannot fulfill online orders and will cancel a random item or two due to counts being off but it isn't very common. Some Walgreens just cancel the orders because they don't want to deal with them. I had words one night with a very mouthy Walgreens Store manager as to why she was canceling my online orders (and causing me to lose digital coupons) when I found all of the items there on the shelf. The first sign of trouble was that this store manager was present in her store at 9 PM, wearing a t-shirt. I should have known this was not going to go well. And it did not.

[BillyGr]

This entire liquidation of categories that were not replaced is another indication of the cash flow and possibly vendor confidence issue. I also doubted the Deutsche assessment that they would completely be worthless with less than a $400M EBIT but that was before the story about the $123M fine/judgment/whatever they have to pay. It's entirely likely that Rite Aid not only needed money last year fast - so they liquidated already paid for slow movers like housewares - but they thought that would be replaceable with new product lines this year. Problem is that both supply chain issues and questions about their financial health probably caused any new vendor lined up to walk away, and their existing vendors couldn't or wouldn't make up for the now vacated space. The supply chain crisis seems now to be focused on specialities not mainstream items. You see a few hot spots in grocery and pharmacy at grocery stores and Walmart/Target but overall those departments are back to normal there and at the other big chains. It is financially challenged companies like Rite Aid where you still see empty shelves everywhere, and aside from that niche specialty stores like Michaels. But overall there is no reason I should walk into a CVS and see full aisles then walk across the street to Rite Aid and see an empty store - especially when we know that the operational execution and on hand integrity at CVS is almost non existent. The useless labor consultants have told companies like CVS not to scan their out of stocks except on a limited basis to cut labor; Rite Aid and other old school companies are not likely to tell their managers to do the same because they don't have millions to waste on those cubicle dwelling idiots like Accenture who have never worked in a store before.

I think the categories liquidated were very very underperforming in many Rite Aid Stores. They were not priced competitively, they did run some sales in the categories but I think even with the sales they just did not move much merchandise in the categories anymore.

In some categories (like electrical items), I doubt they have done much in the way of sales since they stopped doing the Single Check rebates many years ago.

For instance - that program had several items (extension cords, timers, lightbulbs) that were offered every month, and at least one week they were on sale such that the rebate made them pretty much no cost (save tax and that one postage stamp).

You'd see the tags - a cord that was normally marked $5 on sale for $2 with a $2 rebate - and wonder if anyone would actually ever go to Rite Aid to buy an extension cord except that one week a month with the sale/rebate matchup. Most of the items were similar (on sale at 1/2 or less the "normal" price with the rebate to match).

So, I wouldn't be surprised if their sales disappeared almost completely when they stopped offering those deals (they did do a few with bucks back like the LED bulbs, but not nearly as much/often). Thus, eliminating them and leaving that space empty is probably cheaper than paying to stock it with stuff that mostly sits there collecting dust.