Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

I've counted 6 closures in the Evergreen State,all in the Puget Sound metro(no acquired Bartell locations have closed):
  • 2 Seattle locations(2603 Third Avenue in Belltown and 2707 South Rainier Avenue in Mount Baker)
  • 120 106th Avenue NE in downtown Bellevue
  • 14880 NE 24th Street in Redmond
  • 26200 Pacific Highway South in Kent(still had Rite Choice decor despite having new logo exterior signage)
  • 8441 SE 68th Street in Mercer Island(presumably the acquired Longs in town based on store number and past discussion on Groceteria)
While some of these closures may waybacked since the official locator has not pruned late 2020-early 2021 closed locations (Colorado's last 3 locations,all in Grand Junction,are still listed),downtown Bellevue,Redmond 14880 NE 24th,and Kent,26200 Pacific South are definitely part of the announced 145 closures based on timing of the final Google and/or Yelp reviews,and possibly south Mercer Island as well.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Brian Lutz »

That Downtown Bellevue store was very old (I believe the store opened as a Pay 'n Save in the 1960s) and seems to have seen little remodeling over the years (I believe it got the Wellness package at some point but before that it had a lot of old fixtures and was in pretty rough shape.) It occupies a rather large (and presumably valuable) space in Downtown Bellevue so I would assume the even without Rite Aid's current economic troubles that store would have eventually been knocked down in favor of high-rise apartments or condos within a few years anyway. The fact that there's a rather upscale Bartell store a few blocks away (and another one on NE 8th on the opposite side of 405) didn't do this store any favors either.

The Redmond one was a pretty generic strip mall location, likely also a former Pay 'N Save/Payless.

Also, there was a Rite Aid in Lynnwood near Alderwood Mall that closed late in 2021, presumably as part of the initial round of closures. Oddly enough the one in Lake Stevens remains open in spite of being a block away from a Bartell Drugs store.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Brian Lutz wrote:That Downtown Bellevue store was very old (I believe the store opened as a Pay 'n Save in the 1960s) and seems to have seen little remodeling over the years (I believe it got the Wellness package at some point but before that it had a lot of old fixtures and was in pretty rough shape.) It occupies a rather large (and presumably valuable) space in Downtown Bellevue so I would assume the even without Rite Aid's current economic troubles that store would have eventually been knocked down in favor of high-rise apartments or condos within a few years anyway. The fact that there's a rather upscale Bartell store a few blocks away (and another one on NE 8th on the opposite side of 405) didn't do this store any favors either.

The Redmond one was a pretty generic strip mall location, likely also a former Pay 'N Save/Payless.

Also, there was a Rite Aid in Lynnwood near Alderwood Mall that closed late in 2021, presumably as part of the initial round of closures. Oddly enough the one in Lake Stevens remains open in spite of being a block away from a Bartell Drugs store.
Completely missed that one.Judging from the final google and/or Yelp reviews,it could have very well been one of the early closures of the 145-location purge as was downtown Bellevue.What is interesting is that despite the bartell factor(and the fact that CVS has been growing in the Puget sound since opening it's first pnw location in Renton in 2014),only a handful of Western Washington locations have closed in comparison to southern California and NYC which have lost locations left and right.

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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norcalriteaidclerk wrote: June 9th, 2022, 3:56 pm
Completely missed that one.Judging from the final google and/or Yelp reviews,it could have very well been one of the early closures of the 145-location purge as was downtown Bellevue.What is interesting is that despite the bartell factor(and the fact that CVS has been growing in the Puget sound since opening it's first pnw location in Renton in 2014),only a handful of Western Washington locations have closed in comparison to southern California and NYC which have lost locations left and right.

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I am wondering if they have a contractual obligation to keep a certain store count in WA based on some insurance deals they have made. I do not observe the WA Rite Aid Stores to be particularly busy, operating costs tend to veer on the high side in WA, so I am a little surprised to see closures of stores that appear to be doing okay in places like Sacramento and stores that appear to be busy in places like SoCal, yet many quiet stores in WA get to stay open.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: June 10th, 2022, 10:50 pm
norcalriteaidclerk wrote: June 9th, 2022, 3:56 pm
Completely missed that one.Judging from the final google and/or Yelp reviews,it could have very well been one of the early closures of the 145-location purge as was downtown Bellevue.What is interesting is that despite the bartell factor(and the fact that CVS has been growing in the Puget sound since opening it's first pnw location in Renton in 2014),only a handful of Western Washington locations have closed in comparison to southern California and NYC which have lost locations left and right.

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I am wondering if they have a contractual obligation to keep a certain store count in WA based on some insurance deals they have made. I do not observe the WA Rite Aid Stores to be particularly busy, operating costs tend to veer on the high side in WA, so I am a little surprised to see closures of stores that appear to be doing okay in places like Sacramento and stores that appear to be busy in places like SoCal, yet many quiet stores in WA get to stay open.
Keep in mind that Bartell doesn't operate far outside of the Seattle area, and CVS in most parts of Washington is still limited to the pharmacy inside Target stores. Although Walgreens has a presence, Rite Aid has the advantage of less direct competition (drug stores) and actually has a more established presence in the region. I will agree though that the stores are not particularly busy, but they generally are well stocked and organized. Walgreens stores in the area seem to be falling into disrepair more and more...everything from overgrown plants in the parking lot, burned out signs and lights, and dirty floors and worn down check-out counters.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

For those just tuning in,while there's a break in the action(and with 8 days before 2023Q1 earnings),a recap on the cumulative closure activity in California:

The official store locator(stores by state)lists 535 Golden State locations which is obvious out of date since closed stores have not been removed from the official listing since October 2020 as evidenced by the final 3 Colorado locations(all in Grand Junction)still being listed.From January through August 2021,a grand total of 5 California RAD locations closed their doors:
  • 1841 North Western Avenue in LA's Franklin Village neighborhood
  • The lone West Covina Location on Amar Road in a marginal shopping center lacking a traditional grocer
  • 69 East Main Street in downtown Alhambra
  • a pharmacy-only location in the Fort Sutter medical building at 2801 K Street(suite 100)in midtown Sacramento
  • 3875 Alton Parkway in Irvine
That left California with 530 RAD locations as of Labor Day 2021.

Then just days before Christmas 2021,the initial announcement of mass closings which began the previous month(initially 63 with 82 additional announced a couple months ago),which is obviously the catalyst for this lengthy thread.Over the past 8 months,The Golden State has lost 42 RAD locations:
  • The Sacramento media market(which also includes Stockton and Modesto)has lost 7 locations to date:4 locations in Sacramento(831 K,2211 F,5712 Folsom,and 1125 Alhambra)plus Cameron Park,Roseville Pleasant Grove,and Tracy Valpico(wasn't optimally located even in comparison to newer residential developments that it was intended to serve).Of those closures,only 2211 F was a weak volume/questionably located enough store that was expendable.
  • The Bay Area(long gutted by closures and divestitures in the 25 years that RAD has had a presence in)hasn't been spared either;losing the lone locations in Concord(scary store in an awful neighborhood),Hayward,and Los Gatos plus Santa Rosa Marlow(presumed to be a former Thrifty since it was an inline location sharing a strip mall with Safeway though an older Google review suggests that it may have actually been a relocation replacement of a PayLess at 2222 Cleveland Avenue opened between the mid-1960 and mid-1970's and this could be true considering the store number was 6021 since acquired ThriftyPayless units were numbered in the 52XX through 61XX range,the old Payless is partially occupied by a Staples)
  • The Fresno media market has lost 4 locations:2 in Fresno(6074 North 1st and 2990 East Nees)plus downtown Merced and Visalia South Mooney.
  • The closure of 825 State Street leaves Santa Barbara proper with 2 locations remaining
  • Los Angeles,the birthplace of Thrifty Ice Cream,has lost 6 locations in the city(5575 Wilshire on Miracle Mile,the Westwood store on Glendon Avenue,Mission Hills,the last downtown store on 500 South Broadway,Woodland Hills which folded due to a rent hike despite being 24-hours,and Echo Park).Additionally,there have been closures in the independent municipalities within Los Angeles County(Santa Clarita Bouquet Canyon,Santa Monica/1808 Wilshire,Beverly Hills Bedford,and the lone locations in Duarte and West Hollywood).
  • The OC has seen its share of closures(five):Fountain Valley Brookhurst,La Habra/951 North Harbor,Garden Grove/12491 Valley View,San Juan Capistrano/Plaza Drive,and the last Buena Park location which was the first California location to be part of the 145 chainwide closures.
  • Six locations have closed in the Inland Empire:Riverside/3849 Chicago,downtown Ontario,Fontana/16910 Foothill,Victorville/13720 Bear Valley,and the last remaining locations in Chino and Rialto.
  • Even the Coachella Valley has lost a couple locations:the Arabia/Highway 111 location in Indio as well as Washington/I-10 in Palm Desert.
  • San Diego has taken a lesser hit than other major areas in the state,only losing the Rancho Penasquitos(13167 Black Mountain)and Clairemont Mesa(5270 Balboa)locations.
Los Angeles Echo Park(closed roughly a month ago)is the most recent California closure to date.This leaves 488 active RAD locations in my Golden State.This cumulative listing only counts confirmed closures and not rumored ones(the fate of San Mateo Concar depends on approvals/permitting for the long proposed Concar Passage mixed-use project).I'm hoping that the chances of this number decreasing further remains lower than that of 2 undefeated teams colliding in a Super Bowl.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

1793 Marlow, I wonder if it was a vacant Thrifty building from a long time ago that they moved back in to in 2005. The liquor license from 2222 Cleveland was moved to 1793 Marlow in 2005.

Already up for lease too.
https://www.realla.ca/details/25892651

Add this to the list of closures I do not understand.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by buckguy »

Super S wrote: June 14th, 2022, 10:23 am
storewanderer wrote: June 10th, 2022, 10:50 pm
norcalriteaidclerk wrote: June 9th, 2022, 3:56 pm
Completely missed that one.Judging from the final google and/or Yelp reviews,it could have very well been one of the early closures of the 145-location purge as was downtown Bellevue.What is interesting is that despite the bartell factor(and the fact that CVS has been growing in the Puget sound since opening it's first pnw location in Renton in 2014),only a handful of Western Washington locations have closed in comparison to southern California and NYC which have lost locations left and right.

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I am wondering if they have a contractual obligation to keep a certain store count in WA based on some insurance deals they have made. I do not observe the WA Rite Aid Stores to be particularly busy, operating costs tend to veer on the high side in WA, so I am a little surprised to see closures of stores that appear to be doing okay in places like Sacramento and stores that appear to be busy in places like SoCal, yet many quiet stores in WA get to stay open.
Keep in mind that Bartell doesn't operate far outside of the Seattle area, and CVS in most parts of Washington is still limited to the pharmacy inside Target stores. Although Walgreens has a presence, Rite Aid has the advantage of less direct competition (drug stores) and actually has a more established presence in the region. I will agree though that the stores are not particularly busy, but they generally are well stocked and organized. Walgreens stores in the area seem to be falling into disrepair more and more...everything from overgrown plants in the parking lot, burned out signs and lights, and dirty floors and worn down check-out counters.
Given that none of the 3 major chains is a "world beater" in any way, it seems as though chains with a long history of dominance (or the successor through mergers) are able to dominate the market place no matter how weak their operations are. CVS bought Peoples in DC and continues to dominate many years later. Rite Aid couldn't overcome Drug Fair's weak and scattered locations and Walgreen never built as heavily as in some other areas. In fairness, CVS has improved their out of stick situation (which used to be a big problem) and has improved staffing at some of their individual stores. CVS does well in Revco's old core territory in the Cleveland area despite running very different stores.

Walgreens seems to run regionally quite variable stores---the DC stores generally are quite good, although some like Van Ness have had short lives. I recently went to one near me for a vaccination and was impressed at how well stocked it was and the helpfulness of the front end people. The store did a huge prescription business which I wouldn't have guessed given Caremark's lock on the bigger prescription plans. The other DC stores I've visited stores are usually well stocked and clean. I have yet to see them benefit from CVS' recent closings, although one of their stores---Gallery Place--already had a much better location and greater volume than the store that CVS closed on 8th Street.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

The disturbing thing that I've found about the 42 California closures that have occurred so far as that the majority of them sold their prescription records to either one of its traditional big two competitors or a supermarket pharmacy.The only 2 closed California locations that transferred the records to another RAD(that I'm aware of)are both in SoCal: Woodland Hills transferred the records to the vintage mid-1960's legacy thrifty in Canoga Park/West Hills (Platt marketplace),while Garden Grove/12491 Valley View (may have been a Payless or something else instead of a thrifty based on odd architecture including 2 sets of doors)sent its records to the 1963 vintage legacy thrifty up the street at 11961 Valley View.Locally I know that 831 k and 2211 f sold their records to the Broadway Walgreens,while both 1125 Alhambra and Roseville pleasant Grove sold their records to Safeway pharmacies nearby.Hopefully both Cameron Park and 5712 Folsom(4830 j is just as close to the 5039 Folsom CVS)sent their files to another RAD near or far.

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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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norcalriteaidclerk wrote: June 17th, 2022, 6:22 pm The disturbing thing that I've found about the 42 California closures that have occurred so far as that the majority of them sold their prescription records to either one of its traditional big two competitors or a supermarket pharmacy.The only 2 closed California locations that transferred the records to another RAD(that I'm aware of)are both in SoCal: Woodland Hills transferred the records to the vintage mid-1960's legacy thrifty in Canoga Park/West Hills (Platt marketplace),while Garden Grove/12491 Valley View (may have been a Payless or something else instead of a thrifty based on odd architecture including 2 sets of doors)sent its records to the 1963 vintage legacy thrifty up the street at 11961 Valley View.Locally I know that 831 k and 2211 f sold their records to the Broadway Walgreens,while both 1125 Alhambra and Roseville pleasant Grove sold their records to Safeway pharmacies nearby.Hopefully both Cameron Park and 5712 Folsom(4830 j is just as close to the 5039 Folsom CVS)sent their files to another RAD near or far.

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I think 5712 Folsom sent records to J Street.
Also a location I saw that closed somewhere in Orange County sent its records to another RAD (which was only a few blocks away). The sign they posted on the door said something along the lines of "we've moved and we packed your prescription." Actually that may be the Valley View location you are referring to above.

There may be a number of factors for why they sold prescriptions to competitors. Are the stores staying open nearby so understaffed that they cannot handle the additional volume? Were they concerned the stores staying open were unprepared to take the volume so they'd end up losing existing customers as well as customers from the closed store? Tough to say.

But we know Rite Aid has still been doing file buys. For instance that Grass Valley Kmart that closed in December, Rite Aid did the file buy on that store. They also took the pharmacy employees. Grass Valley is already a very high volume Rite Aid. Despite that CVS is going to be opening up right inside the Target that replaces Kmart, Rite Aid still got those files.
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