Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Super S »

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/21/rite-ai ... onths.html

No list is posted, but any location which has not updated to the new logo could be a possibility.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by ClownLoach »

Super S wrote: December 21st, 2021, 9:20 am https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/21/rite-ai ... onths.html

No list is posted, but any location which has not updated to the new logo could be a possibility.
Said these stores started closing last month. Can't find a list however.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by BillyGr »

Will be interesting to see if they are just eliminating some in areas where they have many close together, or if they wind up being from a few of the "outlying" states where they wound up only leaving 6 or 10 stores in a state when most went to Walgreens (and now they find that those few scattered stores are too hard to maintain at such a scattered distance).
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Sactown gets spared another repeat of the 2018-2019 bloodbath which saw 8 area locations(including my previous 'home store' on Arcadia Drive in Citrus Town Center)shuttered in roughly a 14 month span.However,the physical state of the Sunrise Village location(my current home store)is of concern(despite getting updated exterior signage LAST holiday season):a leaky roof has been a problem for years and patchwork fixes have done little to solve the problem especially during 'atmospheric river' events.Worse,a combination of factors even before this morning's quarterly corporate financials report has fueled speculation(i.e.,customers 'assuming' my store is on borrowed time which hopefully they're wrong about)about the future of my current home store(opened as a Thrifty Drug on 9/4/1975 and briefly was branded as Payless Drug in the mid 1990s after the 2 chains merged):one being that roughly a quarter of the sales floor is now shelved off due to key 'non-core' general merchandise categories being systematically reduced and in some cases phased out entirely,another being Sunrise Village being in transition(half the neighboring businesses in the center have left,and a long-planned facelift of the center only got underway this past summer after being pandemic-delayed a year),and another being(industry-wide)staffing difficulties not resulting in pharmacy hours reduced on weekdays chainwide(it must be noted that much fewer locations will have an open pharmacy on Christmas day than previous years,only such local locations this year are in Greenhaven and in midtown opposite the freeway from Sutter General)and in some cases emergency(same day)store hours reductions on 2 holidays(4th of July,Labor Day)and even 2 non-holiday Sundays(yes,pharmacy regularly had shortened hours those days)due to front end staffing shortages(we may not necessarily be the only local RAD location with sub-optimal front-end staffing).The 2018-2019 closures created coverage gaps in key areas(not just in rough areas such as North Sacramento and Franklin Villa/Parkway/Valley Mack but in still growing affluent areas such as Vineyard and east Elk Grove).If 5409 Sunrise does become a casualty,it'll only exacerbate a coverage hole in the northeast county created when the Orangevale Payless Drug was among some 30 larger-sized PayLess Drug legacy locations sold off to Longs Drugs in the fall of 1999(and partially complicated when 7900 Arcadia closed).There was a below-the-radar closure locally over the summer(pharmacy-only location in a medical office building opposite Sutter General presumably due to redundancy with the midtown store opposite the freeway on Alhambra)which hopefully be the last local Rite Aid closure for the foreseeable future.
For your life,Thrifty and Payless have got it.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by buckguy »

It's something like 2.5% of their store count. Not enough to read too much into it.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Romr123 »

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Super S »

buckguy wrote: December 21st, 2021, 3:46 pm It's something like 2.5% of their store count. Not enough to read too much into it.
Good point, but closings are closings, and could be notable depending on the locations.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: December 21st, 2021, 9:53 pm
buckguy wrote: December 21st, 2021, 3:46 pm It's something like 2.5% of their store count. Not enough to read too much into it.
Good point, but closings are closings, and could be notable depending on the locations.
Might be some redundant locations in WA with the Bartell purchase.

Rite Aid has been closing locations for years and done quite a bit of pruning. I'm not sure why they even felt the need to announce they are in the middle of closing 63 locations as buckguy points out this is 2.5% of the store base and they have closed this many stores in other years without making an announcement like this. This isn't a 900 store closure program like CVS (10% of the store base, more if you take away the Target units before coming up with a percent).

I don't think a logo change means much as from the best I can tell they put that new logo on every single store. It is too bad they didn't take that money and build some new stores instead.

Not sure how the Rite Aid at 900 Sunrise in Roseville survives. Still has Longs interior and never any traffic. I figured that was a real dog of a store for Longs to offer it up back during that store trade where Longs gave Rite Aid OR/WA stores/files in exchange for the 6 Reno area Rite Aid units. Probably could be pretty nice with a remodel inside.... exterior looks modern.

Other significant coverage hole for Rite Aid is no store in Fairfield or Vacaville.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: December 22nd, 2021, 12:31 am

I don't think a logo change means much as from the best I can tell they put that new logo on every single store. It is too bad they didn't take that money and build some new stores instead.
Anecdotal, but I had a store in my area that shuttered a few weeks ago that never received the new logo, so I guess its closure was well planned. Later 2010's build store, but a super busy intersection which made it terrible to access.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Brian Lutz »

I suspect some of these could be in the Seattle area where there are now redundancies with nearby Bartell Drugs stores. Then again, there's a Rite Aid here in Lake Stevens which is only about a block from a Bartell store which got the new signage, so who knows?
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