Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by ClownLoach »

Brian Lutz wrote: May 19th, 2022, 4:20 pm As I've mentioned elsewhere in the thread I suspect that Bartell's Downtown Seattle stores were losing a lot of money from shrink and the need to have basically full time off duty police officer security, and wouldn't be surprised if Rite Aid (or some other future owner of Bartell) starts shutting some of those stores down.
There's only so much you can lose from a tiny handful of stores. There are what, 5 in the actual downtown area? If they were unprofitable as a chain just from that, then that is the proverbial tail wagging the dog. They have a lot more spread all over the area. In my most recent trip there the only problematic areas I visited were downtown and Federal Way which has really deteriorated around the old mall (and had a very low end Walmart with everything in glass cases which wasn't a good look). I didn't see any other problematic retail areas.

They seemed to have kept their stores in good condition, not necessarily modernized decor but "timeless" that looks fine and their layout is about the same. They really appeared to me as a lifetime Californian to be a clone of Longs Drugs with shorter aisles like a CVS.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: May 20th, 2022, 3:27 pm
Brian Lutz wrote: May 19th, 2022, 4:20 pm As I've mentioned elsewhere in the thread I suspect that Bartell's Downtown Seattle stores were losing a lot of money from shrink and the need to have basically full time off duty police officer security, and wouldn't be surprised if Rite Aid (or some other future owner of Bartell) starts shutting some of those stores down.
There's only so much you can lose from a tiny handful of stores. There are what, 5 in the actual downtown area? If they were unprofitable as a chain just from that, then that is the proverbial tail wagging the dog. They have a lot more spread all over the area. In my most recent trip there the only problematic areas I visited were downtown and Federal Way which has really deteriorated around the old mall (and had a very low end Walmart with everything in glass cases which wasn't a good look). I didn't see any other problematic retail areas.

They seemed to have kept their stores in good condition, not necessarily modernized decor but "timeless" that looks fine and their layout is about the same. They really appeared to me as a lifetime Californian to be a clone of Longs Drugs with shorter aisles like a CVS.
Bartell has a lot less inventory than Longs but seems to run along the same line. Also far lower volume stores.

I always thought they were well suited for CVS even before CVS bought Longs and Sav on.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

Just when there was a false sense of security lull in the action,it is rumored (not confirmed)that the two Auburn locations could soon be consolidated(is that town really big enough for multiple locations?).Don't know which would be the lame duck one but it is my understanding that the north Auburn legacy Payless(2805 Bell Road in the early 1980s Rock Creek center, former Albertsons/Ralphs is subdivided with bevmo occupying part of it,former Kmart is set to be occupied at least in part by a natural foods market) does higher volume than the south Auburn legacy thrifty (420 Grass Valley highway adjacent to a grocery outlet that was the town's previous Safeway before pak-n-save opened opposite Bell from Rock Creek center).Than again,some of the closure decisions have defied conventional wisdom, especially in traditionally strong western markets.

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For your life,Thrifty and Payless have got it.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: May 23rd, 2022, 7:10 pm Just when there was a false sense of security lull in the action,it is rumored (not confirmed)that the two Auburn locations could soon be consolidated(is that town really big enough for multiple locations?).Don't know which would be the lame duck one but it is my understanding that the north Auburn legacy Payless(2805 Bell Road in the early 1980s Rock Creek center, former Albertsons/Ralphs is subdivided with bevmo occupying part of it,former Kmart is set to be occupied at least in part by a natural foods market) does higher volume than the south Auburn legacy thrifty (420 Grass Valley highway adjacent to a grocery outlet that was the town's previous Safeway before pak-n-save opened opposite Bell from Rock Creek center).Than again,some of the closure decisions have defied conventional wisdom, especially in traditionally strong western markets.

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Maybe whoever is running the closure show took a week off and has returned from vacation.

The Bell Road Rite Aid building is the only building in that shopping center that has not been remodeled. There is a low performing Walgreens between the two Rite Aids and there are CVS Stores right by both of the Rite Aids that both do okay. The Bell Road store isn't in great shape and it has a lot of empty space. It has the Wellness remodel but it doesn't look very good. It never seems very busy when I go in. This store is not nearly as busy as it used to be, back before the Wellness remodel was done.

The Auburn Thrifty is a bit interesting- back in the 2000's that store seemed to have very slow business. I always wondered when it would close. It kept the Thrifty interior until it received the Wellness interior. The Grocery Outlet next to it started to get busier and busier and then I started to notice the Rite Aid was also getting busier and busier. It is my view at this point that Rite Aid is quite busy and closing it would be a mistake. They spent quite a bit of money on the Wellness remodel and it came out very nice. Business really increased when they did the remodel. If they close, the Walgreens and CVS will gladly pick up the customers.

As far as if it is big enough for two locations- CVS has 3 locations in Auburn and Walgreens has 1. There are a lot of retirees in Auburn and the area is growing. The Thrifty and Payless are obviously quite old stores that have been there for decades; of the CVS units 2 have been there for decades and the third (Combie Road) was built by Longs about 15 years ago. The Walgreens is probably about 15 years old but does not do well at all, and has a poor reputation in Auburn. There is no reason to close either store in Auburn unless they are just looking for any store to close just because they are in a bad mood. If anything they should be figuring out a way to get a third store somewhere between Auburn and Grass Valley where the housing growth is, or in Penn Valley.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

In other news, the surplus property listing is updated as of 5/5:
https://www.riteaid.com/content/dam/rit ... 220522.pdf

5712 Folsom in Sacramento is on the list- lease does not expire until 2024
599 West Vaipico in Tracy is on the list- lease does not expire until 2027 (...why did this close...?)
Cameron Park is on the list- lease does not expire until 2029 (another real questionable closure)

I think we can shelve my previous theory they are closing as leases expire. Maybe that is the case for some of the stores but certainly not all of them...
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Romr123 »

Romr123 wrote: April 5th, 2022, 10:34 pm Noticed a few closures from the store list on Riteaid.com in Michigan--one in Livonia (leaving 3, including one a mile away from the closing store on the same street (6 Mile), one in Novi (leaving 1), one in Battle Creek (leaving 3), one in Grand Blanc (upscale suburb of Flint leaving 4; closed is one sandwiched between two others remaining open with drive throughs on the same street a couple miles either side). Note that Flint kept all 7 locations open. One in Jackson (leaving 3).

Looking at Ohio...one closed in Cleveland (leaving 6), zero closed in Toledo/Sylvania (leaving 20 stores!)

Maryland--one closed in Baltimore (leaving 13)

Connecticut--one closed in Cheshire (leaving 1)

New Jersey--one closed in Lakewood (not leaving any)

Looked like about 10 locations closed in NYC.
Noticed one more in Michigan: Brighton (leaving zero; four nearby stores still open). Still just looks like prudent pruning around here.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by buckguy »

Romr123 wrote: May 24th, 2022, 6:06 am
Romr123 wrote: April 5th, 2022, 10:34 pm Noticed a few closures from the store list on Riteaid.com in Michigan--one in Livonia (leaving 3, including one a mile away from the closing store on the same street (6 Mile), one in Novi (leaving 1), one in Battle Creek (leaving 3), one in Grand Blanc (upscale suburb of Flint leaving 4; closed is one sandwiched between two others remaining open with drive throughs on the same street a couple miles either side). Note that Flint kept all 7 locations open. One in Jackson (leaving 3).

Looking at Ohio...one closed in Cleveland (leaving 6), zero closed in Toledo/Sylvania (leaving 20 stores!)

Maryland--one closed in Baltimore (leaving 13)

Connecticut--one closed in Cheshire (leaving 1)

New Jersey--one closed in Lakewood (not leaving any)

Looked like about 10 locations closed in NYC.
Noticed one more in Michigan: Brighton (leaving zero; four nearby stores still open). Still just looks like prudent pruning around here.
The Cleveland store is an oldie--it was built as a centennial A&P. It may have been a Gray Drug for awhile after A&P left the market. It's not a bad location---stable older neighborhoods with some semi-recent construction nearby, but not a lot of other retail around it. Also on the list are a store in East Cleveland--an owned location in a very economically depressed suburb and Mentor--a store in an area with little retail (or competition).

There is one one store in the Toledo area on the list, in Rossford. A small, older somewhat isolated suburb w/o much competition. It looks like it originally was a 50s/early 60s Kroger. Rite-Aid got lucky in the Toledo area--they bought Lane's which had previously owned People's (which went to CVS). Lane's dominated the market (much as People's did in DC) and chains like Gray, Revco, and longgone Cunningham never had big footprints. The Gray stores might have been spun off when Rite-Aid bought that chain.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by babs »

storewanderer wrote: May 23rd, 2022, 11:48 pm In other news, the surplus property listing is updated as of 5/5:
https://www.riteaid.com/content/dam/rit ... 220522.pdf

5712 Folsom in Sacramento is on the list- lease does not expire until 2024
599 West Vaipico in Tracy is on the list- lease does not expire until 2027 (...why did this close...?)
Cameron Park is on the list- lease does not expire until 2029 (another real questionable closure)

I think we can shelve my previous theory they are closing as leases expire. Maybe that is the case for some of the stores but certainly not all of them...
Oregon must be one of their better markets. Nearly all the stores listed there for lease are subleases of old Payless stores where they downsized the space. These are nearly impossible to sublease since Rite Aid will not pay for a new facade and separating the HVAC and electrical systems. I only can think of two stores that have been successfully subleased and both are low budget tenants.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

storewanderer wrote: May 23rd, 2022, 11:48 pm In other news, the surplus property listing is updated as of 5/5:
https://www.riteaid.com/content/dam/rit ... 220522.pdf

5712 Folsom in Sacramento is on the list- lease does not expire until 2024
599 West Vaipico in Tracy is on the list- lease does not expire until 2027 (...why did this close...?)
Cameron Park is on the list- lease does not expire until 2029 (another real questionable closure)

I think we can shelve my previous theory they are closing as leases expire. Maybe that is the case for some of the stores but certainly not all of them...
As stated earlier in what has become a looooong thread,599 West Valpico in Tracy(Customer World-era build)wasn't exactly well located despite being in a newer and developing area.The now vacant store is on the NWC of Valpico and Macarthur Drive the latter street which doesn't have high vehicle traffic as it is.It should have been logically located further west along Valpico preferably at the Tracy Boulevard intersection which also has Raleys and Walgreens(on separate corners).

There are several still open legacy Payless locations on the list with sub-leases expiring within the next 18 months:Los Banos,Manteca,Pacifica/Fairmont,South Lake Tahoe,and Stockton/North Wilson Way.It would be interesting to see if those locations remain in business when 2024 rolls along.There are also closed stores(mainly legacy Thrifty locations)on the list with dark leases expiring during this time frame:Beverly Hills Bedford,Los Angeles/5575 Wilshire,Sacramento/7900 Florin,Santa Clarita Bouquet Canyon,and Visalia south Mooney.All are recent closures(past 6 months)except for 7900 Florin which closed just over 3 years ago.

An interesting listing I found was land for sale in the Fresno County town of Parlier(never knew it existed),presumably for a planned-but-never-built store.I also see listings for office space in the Kansas suburbs of western Kansas City(Overland Park)as well as in Houston and San Antonio,all in metro areas where RAD has never operated retail pharmacies to this very day.

One of the legacy Payless locations with sub-leases expiring later in the decade is 2805 Bell Road in Auburn whose sublease doesn't expire until New Years Eve 2025.This store(along with the rest of Rock Creek Center opened in the early 1980's)and was remodeled into the Payless Store of the Future layout midway through its Payless incarnation(circa 1990).Upon becoming Rite Aid it received a Rite Choice decor refresh in the early 2000's but kept the SotF layout until getting the Wellness remodel(version 2)some 8 years ago in which the store was partially downsized(which explains the sublease that includes the previous photo area).Even now,the pharmacy remains in the front corner to the left of the entrance.To me what really has hampered this store in recent years is that so much non-core merchandise has been phased out within the past couple years which explains double-wide and/or empty aisles with cardboard cutout filler.In any case,it's been an interesting reversal of fortunes for both Auburn stores since their wellness remodels albeit in opposite directions.The former Thrifty on 420 Grass Valley Highway likely opened in the mid or late 1970's,and who would have thunk that it would get a new lease on life after its extreme makeover.It must be noted that it was one of my store's pharmacists that overheard the unconfirmed/unverified rumor that consolidation of the 2 Auburn stores was being considered but so far not positively decided on.

Aside from this,at this point(due to the lack of recent positive or negative company news within the past 10 days,despite reports on reddit of labor hours being squeezed)either we're either being lulled into a false sense of security by the corporate store closure committee or there could finally truly be a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel.For more reasons than one,I seriously hope it's the latter.
For your life,Thrifty and Payless have got it.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: May 24th, 2022, 1:34 pm
There are several still open legacy Payless locations on the list with sub-leases expiring within the next 18 months:Los Banos,Manteca,Pacifica/Fairmont,South Lake Tahoe,and Stockton/North Wilson Way.It would be interesting to see if those locations remain in business when 2024 rolls along.There are also closed stores(mainly legacy Thrifty locations)on the list with dark leases expiring during this time frame:Beverly Hills Bedford,Los Angeles/5575 Wilshire,Sacramento/7900 Florin,Santa Clarita Bouquet Canyon,and Visalia south Mooney.All are recent closures(past 6 months)except for 7900 Florin which closed just over 3 years ago.

An interesting listing I found was land for sale in the Fresno County town of Parlier(never knew it existed),presumably for a planned-but-never-built store.I also see listings for office space in the Kansas suburbs of western Kansas City(Overland Park)as well as in Houston and San Antonio,all in metro areas where RAD has never operated retail pharmacies to this very day.

One of the legacy Payless locations with sub-leases expiring later in the decade is 2805 Bell Road in Auburn whose sublease doesn't expire until New Years Eve 2025.This store(along with the rest of Rock Creek Center opened in the early 1980's)and was remodeled into the Payless Store of the Future layout midway through its Payless incarnation(circa 1990).Upon becoming Rite Aid it received a Rite Choice decor refresh in the early 2000's but kept the SotF layout until getting the Wellness remodel(version 2)some 8 years ago in which the store was partially downsized(which explains the sublease that includes the previous photo area).Even now,the pharmacy remains in the front corner to the left of the entrance.To me what really has hampered this store in recent years is that so much non-core merchandise has been phased out within the past couple years which explains double-wide and/or empty aisles with cardboard cutout filler.In any case,it's been an interesting reversal of fortunes for both Auburn stores since their wellness remodels albeit in opposite directions.The former Thrifty on 420 Grass Valley Highway likely opened in the mid or late 1970's,and who would have thunk that it would get a new lease on life after its extreme makeover.It must be noted that it was one of my store's pharmacists that overheard the unconfirmed/unverified rumor that consolidation of the 2 Auburn stores was being considered but so far not positively decided on.
I think those out of store area office spaces are for the medical clinic or PBM operation that was purchased under Standley. I think that company was originally from TX. I could be wrong.

You bring up a few interesting points. Many of the Payless units that had the 45 degree layout still have that small Payless pharmacy in the front corner of the store. When Rite Aid was doing Wellness remodels they didn't touch those pharmacies. Many of those pharmacies are on the small side. However the Thrifty units they did some reconfiguring in Wellness remodels. Since most Thrifty Pharmacies were built with an enclosed pharmacy work area but then a counter that was freestanding and out on the sales floor, it was very easy to take that counter and enlarge it/expand it a bit further into the sales floor to help create additional work area for pharmacy staff.

Gardnerville is also one of those Rite Aids built as a 45 degree Payless. What is funny is Truckee opened around the same time and it was not that layout but it was a straight up and down aisle layout nothing like a 45 degree store, and Truckee had the old decor like Castro Valley has to this day when it opened. Back to Gardnerville there was a period there when Rite Aid left Reno/Sparks/Sun Valley/Carson City/Fallon trading six RA1s to Longs for OR/WA/Roseville Longs and and right as that was happening the Gardnerville Rite Aid bought an independent pharmacy's files and also bought the Safeway Pharmacy files down there from the odd pharmacy only Safeway that was in Minden (their division pharmacy recruiter lived in Minden... think that is why that little pharmacy existed in a medical complex there)... and the Payless front corner pharmacy became inadequate for the volume of pharmacy business the store was suddenly doing. They tried to install a counter in front of pharmacy similar to the Thrifty models mentioned above to expand work area but then the problem was it pushed the customer pharmacy line out practically to the front door. The solution was a full remodel and downsize of sales floor into the "customer world" interior and layout, and building an entirely new giant pharmacy elsewhere in the store and cutting a drive through out of it as well since the store is on an end. Later the store got a Wellness remodel that changed the aisle layout but of course didn't move the pharmacy. This is the only store I've seen that was downsized into a Customer World layout. That also happened around the time Wal Mart opened in Gardnerville which was not good for the store's front end business so downsizing the front end was appropriate under the circumstances.
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