Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

[norcalriteaidclerk]

On the subject of Long Beach,a location at 300 East Willow was lost in the 2018-2019 purge,it was once 24 hours but was merely an extended hours store(open until midnight)in the waning months of its operating life.The store that has a 24-hour front-end and had non-standard exterior signage is at 211 Cherry:it has a still-intact vintage 'Rx Clinic Pharmacy' sign facing the corner with Broadway and long had non-standard exterior wordmark signage(no logos)with both 'RITE AID' and department indicators in generic Times font until RAD finally updated it with the current logo/fonts within the past 16 months(old signs were still present in March 2021).RAD has only operated here for roughly two decades(the high store number 6346 suggests this was a planned infill store instead of a former Thrifty)though obviously this building was historically occupied by a unidentified pharmacy in the past.Also,the Belmont Shores location at 5128 East Second(also a planned infill location based on a a 62XX store number)is apparently one of the few California location that lacks a liquor license,the closed Naples location(whose pharmacy files were sent here)did sell alcohol.Lastly,a former Thrifty at 1890 Ximeno(now a Planet Fitness)was replaced a few years back with a new build Wellness store around the block at 4525 Pacific Coast Highway.

211 Cherry definitely wasn't one of the stores I went to.

Looking around the liquor license website but got sidetracked and see a pending liquor licenses in CA.
35946 Winchester Road, Winchester, CA - says hold due to under construction

Also see there was a new Rite Aid opened in Valley Center, CA in December 2020, as a typical Wellness store (wasn't the new prototype already announced?)... interesting they were able to get a new store opened up but Vons is full of excuses.

35946 Winchester has to be the planned French Valley(north of Temecula)location that was mentioned much earlier in this thread.Once(not if but when)this opens this could potentially the first California location with the 'whole health' decor unless there's a remodel or two nobody knows about.I believe when Valley Center(north of Escondido)opened,the 'whole health' decor was still 'in the lab' and not yet officially rolled out.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/ ... LS0X9hSJJg

Through all this,the new HQ was dedicated yesterday.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

[storewanderer]

Gardnerville, NV Rite Aid is in a world of hurt. They have only one pharmacist, so the pharmacy is now only open 10 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday. It is closed entirely on Saturday and Sunday. This is a retirement area, and a high volume pharmacy. This is a serious problem. Customers are going into the store all day today and getting extremely mad at the couple of front end employees left in the store due to the pharmacy being closed. I guess it has been like this for a couple weeks now. They basically have no cashiers anymore and the store is run entirely by shift supervisors/assistant manager/store manager. All very long term employees, who do an excellent job. What a mess.

The store is still open until 9 PM on weeknights but is closing at 6 PM on weekends also.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

Gardnerville, NV Rite Aid is in a world of hurt. They have only one pharmacist, so the pharmacy is now only open 10 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday. It is closed entirely on Saturday and Sunday. This is a retirement area, and a high volume pharmacy. This is a serious problem. Customers are going into the store all day today and getting extremely mad at the couple of front end employees left in the store due to the pharmacy being closed. I guess it has been like this for a couple weeks now. They basically have no cashiers anymore and the store is run entirely by shift supervisors/assistant manager/store manager. All very long term employees, who do an excellent job. What a mess.

The store is still open until 9 PM on weeknights but is closing at 6 PM on weekends also.

Tell me about it:5409 sunrise isn't having it much better,front end is currently down to the store manager,two shift supervisors,a PAC,and 2 cashiers(myself included);and as many as half of my front end colleagues may have one foot out the door and/or were trying to get a different job at one point.Front end closing time is for now rolled back to 9(weekday pharmacy closing time). Pharmacy is actually better staffed(and has picked up some slack while 6661 Auburn is undergoing repairs)and hasn't had to change it's operating hours.

The new HQ clearly comes at the expense of the stores that it's supposed to support.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

[storewanderer]

Tell me about it:5409 sunrise isn't having it much better,front end is currently down to the store manager,two shift supervisors,a PAC,and 2 cashiers(myself included);and as many as half of my front end colleagues may have one foot out the door and/or were trying to get a different job at one point.Front end closing time is for now rolled back to 9(weekday pharmacy closing time). Pharmacy is actually better staffed(and has picked up some slack while 6661 Auburn is undergoing repairs)and hasn't had to change it's operating hours.

The new HQ clearly comes at the expense of the stores that it's supposed to support.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

I think it makes sense to close front end at the same time as pharmacy generally speaking unless the store has an extremely busy front end after pharmacy closes (this is definitely not the case with Gardnerville- wouldn't miss much closing at 6 really). This pharmacy in Gardnerville was well staffed a few months ago too. I don't know how it can possibly process the volume it does only being open 10-6 Monday through Friday. I also don't think the other pharmacies in that town (Raleys, Smiths, Wal Mart, Walgreens) are exactly in a great position to pick up a ton of new customers either. Not sure what happened. Other retailers/fast food have staffing problems in that town as well. Recent visits the Walgreens there has had pharmacy closed by 6 PM as well and only one employee on front end (second employee on break), one time recently in Walgreens, the supervisor was running the register and had a frozen meal or something under the counter and was eating it between customers (had plenty of time, store is very slow); it is a low volume store and medium volume pharmacy.

[BillyGr]

Gardnerville, NV Rite Aid is in a world of hurt. They have only one pharmacist, so the pharmacy is now only open 10 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday. It is closed entirely on Saturday and Sunday. This is a retirement area, and a high volume pharmacy. This is a serious problem. Customers are going into the store all day today and getting extremely mad at the couple of front end employees left in the store due to the pharmacy being closed. I guess it has been like this for a couple weeks now. They basically have no cashiers anymore and the store is run entirely by shift supervisors/assistant manager/store manager. All very long term employees, who do an excellent job. What a mess.

The store is still open until 9 PM on weeknights but is closing at 6 PM on weekends also.

Walgreens has done the same with a couple of their stores in this area (the M-F only pharmacy, that is). One isn't so bad (as they took over THREE Rite Aid locations on the same road within a few mile stretch, and I think the others have longer hours, so people could easily get prescriptions there on a weekend if needed), but the other is in a smaller town with only one (supermarket) pharmacy besides the Walgreens, making it much harder for those people.
Seems they could work it out (these two stores being about 15 miles apart at most) to hire one extra person, and have them work 2 days in each store, allowing both to have hours 7 days/week by sharing that 3rd pharmacist, but then again that would probably make too much sense

[storewanderer]

So on 7/20 Rite Aid ran a promotion on its website: if you order on the website and pick up in the store you get 50% off the entire transaction. No clue how this makes them any money, many items on the website are priced drastically lower than in-store to begin with. The stores are low on inventory and low on labor and unless the promotion generated little order volume for the stores I could see this being a very difficult situation for the stores.

[mbz321]

So on 7/20 Rite Aid ran a promotion on its website: if you order on the website and pick up in the store you get 50% off the entire transaction. No clue how this makes them any money, many items on the website are priced drastically lower than in-store to begin with. The stores are low on inventory and low on labor and unless the promotion generated little order volume for the stores I could see this being a very difficult situation for the stores.

I saw this on a deal forum and the majority of the comments seem to indicate the whole thing was a mess..from an incredibly buggy website to canceled orders (and problems actually getting the pick up order in-store if it did go through.) Also a few commenters indicate they ran this promo before.

[storewanderer]

I saw this on a deal forum and the majority of the comments seem to indicate the whole thing was a mess..from an incredibly buggy website to canceled orders (and problems actually getting the pick up order in-store if it did go through.) Also a few commenters indicate they ran this promo before.

The website is pretty rough. The other drugstore chains don't have great websites either though.

I've never had any portion of a Rite Aid pick up order canceled... I guess the store I order from is very reliable. Can't say the same for Walgreens pick up, they love to cancel, even if the items are right on the shelf.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

Even in the city that they just moved their HQ to,they just can't catch a break when a store property is targeted for redevelopment.Girard Avenue was lost 18 months ago for that same reason,and at least one of the Philadelphia closures that occurred within the past eight months was rumored for redevelopment as well.Out west,the former Franklin village location(began life as a Ralphs before it's lengthy stint as Thrifty/RAD)is already undergoing conversion to a lazy acres that had been planned for years while the fate of San Mateo concar depends on approvals/permitting for the concar passage mixed use project.Also,the former 2211 f store(long a Cardinal/Lucky/Albertsons) recently sold with possible redevelopment in the cards there.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk