Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

[storewanderer]

I think I read a laundromat was moving into one of the closed Sacramento Stores.
Maybe K Street.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

I think I read a laundromat was moving into one of the closed Sacramento Stores.
Maybe K Street.

Actually it would be the 2101 s store that's been closed for over three years now.It was an undersized customer world era build,it only had ten short aisles and only a few registers (one in pharmacy,three at the front).It was small enough to lack a Thrifty counter and it wasn't well merchandised even for a small store(certain categories like toys and games weren't even carried). Even 831 k had a more standard merchandise selection.

► Show Spoiler

Speaking of Thrifty ice cream,for-sale diecast replicas of the delivery trucks are coming soon to California RAD locations that have a counter(472 of 487 active locations).The locations that lack the hand dip counter include(all are former Payless units unless indicated otherwise):

• Crescent City
• Eureka (former purity which Payless would take over)
• The former bank building turned Thrifty Jr in Kings Beach
• Placerville Fair Lane (originally value Giant which was owned by Payless NW and rebranded only after they acquired Payless Super Drug Stores of Oakland)
• 2 Roseville locations (4004 Foothills and 900 sunrise the latter being a former Long's drugs acquired in a swap along with several pnw locations for the greater Reno RAD locations)
• Castro Valley (originally Lee Bros value world before becoming Payless)
• Both San Mateo locations(1320 West Hillsdale was previously a Thrifty Jr)
• King City
• Bishop (i suspect Thrifty had a store in town prior to the merger with Payless)
• 2 pharmacy only locations (Monterey Alvarado and Coronado)
• 25906 Newport in Menifee (1990-ish SotF Payless)

This adds up to 14 hand-dip less locations in the Golden State, hopefully I merely missed a location or two.

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[storewanderer]

Speaking of Thrifty ice cream,for-sale diecast replicas of the delivery trucks are coming soon to California RAD locations that have a counter(472 of 487 active locations).The locations that lack the hand dip counter include(all are former Payless units unless indicated otherwise):

• Crescent City
• Eureka (former purity which Payless would take over)
• The former bank building turned Thrifty Jr in Kings Beach
• Placerville Fair Lane (originally value Giant which was owned by Payless NW and rebranded only after they acquired Payless Super Drug Stores of Oakland)
• 2 Roseville locations (4004 Foothills and 900 sunrise the latter being a former Long's drugs acquired in a swap along with several pnw locations for the greater Reno RAD locations)
• Castro Valley (originally Lee Bros value world before becoming Payless)
• Both San Mateo locations(1320 West Hillsdale was previously a Thrifty Jr)
• King City
• Bishop (i suspect Thrifty had a store in town prior to the merger with Payless)
• 2 pharmacy only locations (Monterey Alvarado and Coronado)

This adds up to 13 hand-dip less locations in the Golden State, hopefully I merely missed a location or two.[/spoil]

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If there is one thing that has been consistent with the various Rite Aid management teams it is an ongoing commitment to the ice cream program. When there were 6,000 stores and ice cream was a program in basically 500 stores it seemed odd there was a focus. But now that there are 2,300 stores and ice cream is a program in, still, basically 500 stores, suddenly it does seem somewhat more important.

They never did add a counter into the Gardnerville location despite the multiple remodels, it is served by a Thrifty truck. The Reno locations all had ice cream counters (Longs had a great time walling that part of the RA1s off, cutting front end to 3 registers, and building a front stock room; CVS made no changes on that front).

With regard to Bishop, there was a Thrifty. It was a very small Thrifty with only one set of aisles (still had the horizontal up front for photo and cosmetics) and the tan/red interior. In the Thrifty and Payless merger they required the company to divest that pharmacy. The pharmacy was divested to Vons and the Thrifty Store closed and the shopping center sat mostly abandoned for years with a long abandoned Burger King. It eventually redeveloped (El Pollo Loco in the Burger King). The current Bishop Rite Aid is one of the worst condition in the chain, it is in total and complete disrepair and has been for years. I don't know why it hasn't gotten a Wellness remodel and a downsize. Mammoth Lakes has been through downsize, to RA1, then Wellness Remodel.

[Romr123]

I get that it's quite expensive to ship ice cream, but I've got to wonder whether there's an ice cream business in the rest of the country. I get that it's a tough business case to make, but there is a store nearby (Huntington Woods) which would absolutely kill it if they got ice cream. The suburb is a very affluent 1 1/2 sqmi bedroom community bounded by major 5 lane arterials, next to a couple of towns with downtowns (but HW is just residential). The RA is on the "correct" side of Coolidge to be able to scoop ice cream for all the kids walking to the store...I can only imagine the fistfulls of crumpled $1 bills held out for a scoop of Superman...SE Michigan, though, is definitely a summertime soft-serve region, with seasonal stands all over the place...

[Brian Lutz]

I get that it's quite expensive to ship ice cream, but I've got to wonder whether there's an ice cream business in the rest of the country. I get that it's a tough business case to make, but there is a store nearby (Huntington Woods) which would absolutely kill it if they got ice cream. The suburb is a very affluent 1 1/2 sqmi bedroom community bounded by major 5 lane arterials, next to a couple of towns with downtowns (but HW is just residential). The RA is on the "correct" side of Coolidge to be able to scoop ice cream for all the kids walking to the store...I can only imagine the fistfulls of crumpled $1 bills held out for a scoop of Superman...SE Michigan, though, is definitely a summertime soft-serve region, with seasonal stands all over the place...

Interestingly, Thrifty Ice Cream seems to be shipped all over Mexico, which I wasn't ever aware of. While doing research for an upcoming Baja Peninsula cruise I found a Thrifty Ice Cream store on the Malecon of La Paz. Most of the stores are concentrated near the California border (Tijuana and Mexicali alone have 50 of them), but the locator on their website shows that there are currently 153 Thrifty Ice Cream stores throughout Mexico, and itis made in the USA, although it does appear to come from a different plant than the US market Thrifty Ice Cream (Bon Suisse in Poway CA, a dairy plant which seems to primarily make products for export). Bon Suisse holds exclusive rights to the Thrifty Ice Cream brand in Mexico, Latin America and the Middle East, although I'm not sure if it's currently sold outside of Mexico.

https://www.heladosthrifty.com.mx/ (Website is in Spanish, but you can probably get most of it without too much reading.)

[norcalriteaidclerk]

I get that it's quite expensive to ship ice cream, but I've got to wonder whether there's an ice cream business in the rest of the country. I get that it's a tough business case to make, but there is a store nearby (Huntington Woods) which would absolutely kill it if they got ice cream. The suburb is a very affluent 1 1/2 sqmi bedroom community bounded by major 5 lane arterials, next to a couple of towns with downtowns (but HW is just residential). The RA is on the "correct" side of Coolidge to be able to scoop ice cream for all the kids walking to the store...I can only imagine the fistfulls of crumpled $1 bills held out for a scoop of Superman...SE Michigan, though, is definitely a summertime soft-serve region, with seasonal stands all over the place...

Interestingly, Thrifty Ice Cream seems to be shipped all over Mexico, which I wasn't ever aware of. While doing research for an upcoming Baja Peninsula cruise I found a Thrifty Ice Cream store on the Malecon of La Paz. Most of the stores are concentrated near the California border (Tijuana and Mexicali alone have 50 of them), but the locator on their website shows that there are currently 153 Thrifty Ice Cream stores throughout Mexico, and itis made in the USA, although it does appear to come from a different plant than the US market Thrifty Ice Cream (Bon Suisse in Poway CA, a dairy plant which seems to primarily make products for export). Bon Suisse holds exclusive rights to the Thrifty Ice Cream brand in Mexico, Latin America and the Middle East, although I'm not sure if it's currently sold outside of Mexico.

https://www.heladosthrifty.com.mx/ (Website is in Spanish, but you can probably get most of it without too much reading.)

I believe the Mexico arrangement involves a third party licensing deal through Bon Suisse if I read Wikipedia right.

Additionally, dropped by 1730 Watt early afternoon yesterday(the final assistant manager at 7900 Arcadia still holds that same position at this store).Old exterior signs are still present.However, despite some stock holes and a sixth of the floor space shelved off,store remains in pristine physical shape and was decently busy(at least a few customers/parties besides myself including one at the hand dip counter).Store remains decently merchandised and still carries certain items only stocked in Wellness remodeled locations(this was remodeled into the first version).At least 4 front end employees (including that one old colleague from 7900 Arcadia)were on duty.Purchased quite a bit(enough to fulfill the minimum purchase requirements for a special birthday coupon).Despite its share of out of stocks it still resembles a location that will remain a going concern for the foreseeable future.

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[storewanderer]

https://www.heladosthrifty.com.mx/ (Website is in Spanish, but you can probably get most of it without too much reading.)

I believe the Mexico arrangement involves a third party licensing deal through Bon Suisse if I read Wikipedia right.



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[/quote]

I think the Thrifty Ice Cream that goes to Mexico is still made at the Thrifty plant but rather than being distributed through the Thrifty trucks to Rite Aid it goes over to Bon Suisse who handles the distribution. Bon Suisse also handles the distribution to people like those water and ice stores and gas stations all over AZ and Las Vegas who sell Thrifty Ice Cream. I am not sure who handles distribution to some of the other random distribution points like Seafood City.

Some years ago they had some key chains of the smiling ice cream cone. They reportedly were given out at the Rite Aid Trade Show that used to happen annually. I think those would be a great seller if they want to push more Thrifty merchandise.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

https://www.inquirer.com/business/retai ... 20728.html

This article ignores the fact that at least a couple of the closed sites are targeted for redevelopment,not to mention that there are reports if yet another activist shareholder putting pressure on the re-elected BOD.

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[storewanderer]

Store in Gardnerville is still only running pharmacy until 6pm Monday-Friday and it is closed Saturday and Sunday. The front end now closes at 7 PM on weeknights and 6 PM on weekends. Hiring signs are posted all over. Also the drive through pharmacy is closed (CVS does this around Reno also lately).

Meanwhile in Gardnerville, Walgreens pharmacy is open every day closing at 8 weeknights and 6 weekends, and Wal Mart pharmacy is open until 9 on weeknights and 6 or 7 on weekends. Raleys has more limited hours and who knows what is going on at Smiths but it appears to operate 7 days a week.

[storewanderer]

Kings Beach Store- 3k square foot store- place is well stocked. Fewest out of stocks I've seen in a Rite AId in months. Pharmacy is open Monday-Saturday. Store closes at 6 PM on M-W and 8 PM on Th-Sun. Also very interesting they can somehow keep this pharmacy open on Saturday (only had the pharmacist working). I guess they can fill 3k square feet still. Store had 3 employees. Customers aggressively asking to use the restroom (hundreds of people around at beach across the street), this store has not provided a customer restroom in its 30+ years, but have never seen multiple customers get as aggressive about it as I saw today. I really thought one guy was going to throw something at the cashier. Beyond that this store was busy, people were buying, it basically felt like it has always felt. The cut of things like picture frames and low end electronics opened up about 1/2 aisle and they filled that with more seasonal and it is selling (they have some stuff outside too).

Truckee Store- yikes. Disaster. Store is open everyday until 6 PM. Pharmacy is open Monday-Friday only, closed weekends (Safeway pharmacy is open in same center, CVS open too nearby). Ice Cream counter has out of order sign and is blocked by cartfulls of returns and other merchandise. Store has very few "local" employees. The two employees present in the store were brought in from elsewhere to work in the store. They had two employees this afternoon, one stocking and one cashiering. Some parts of the place are stocked fairly well but other parts are a complete disaster, more than half of SKUs out of stock. The store is very dirty inside. Business in this place is obviously way off from what it was (this used to be a very high volume store).

It appears Rite Aid's end game the past year is to just run what were good solid stores into the total ground, and when that still doesn't work to justify closing the store for good which they obviously want to do, start doing things like close the pharmacy on Saturday and Sunday, and close the store at 6 PM, to really go in for the kill. Starting to think that Walgreens or Safeway merger would have been a better outcome at this point.