- Rite Aid is restructuring under creditor control after closing hundreds of stores.
- As the closure list grows, the future of its remaining locations remains uncertain.
- We visited a Brooklyn Rite Aid that was nearly empty despite not being on the list.
Rite Aid has announced the closure of over 200 stores since last year, but a location that didn't make the shutdown list looks just as empty.
Business Insider visited a Rite Aid store in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, over nearly three months. Although the location hasn't been added to the closure list, the shelves are bare, and the workers look spread thin.
Rite Aid's bare store — in a busy, popular urban area — shows just how precarious the chain's future is.
The drugstore chain filed for bankruptcy last year amid a slew of opioid-related lawsuits. It had also struggled with slowing sales and mounting debt.
It got approval last month from a bankruptcy court judge to restructure its business. Under the deal, a group of the company's creditors have control over the company.
Over the past several months, Rite Aid has closed hundreds of stores around the US in an attempt to improve its operations. Our trip to the Crown Heights branch made us wonder if there's more to come.
The personal hygiene aisles have been all but cleared out, and you won't have much luck finding household cleaning supplies. The food aisles are hit or miss, depending on what type of snacks you're looking for.
On our most recent trip, we were looking for ice cream and deodorant. Instead, we left with mechanical pencils and a six-pack of Coke Zero after observing a completely vacant frozen food section.
Although the cashier said on July 24 that they're expecting to restock shelves next week, our visit looked surprisingly similar to our trip on May 1: halls nearly empty of workers and shelves nearly empty of products. Still, unlike two months ago, we did see one employee putting more drinks out for shoppers.
Rite Aid's website also seems to reflect the high number of out-of-stock items. Searches for snacks at this Brooklyn store yielded many results, but many were listed as "out of stock."
"We have had to make some difficult business decisions as we prepare to emerge a stronger, healthier company that's better equipped to serve our customers," a Rite Aid spokesperson told BI, adding that the company is "working diligently with our supplier partners to begin restocking our shelves."
Customers can ask store employees to "recommend alternative products" if what they want is out of stock, the spokesperson said. "Our customers' loyalty is not lost on us, and we look forward to coming back better and stronger than ever for you."
But with empty shelves and limited choice, the clock may be ticking before customers go elsewhere — perhaps for good. There's certainly ample competition. The chain has about 1,600 stores nationwide. Rival CVS, meanwhile, has about 9,000 locations, while Walgreen has 8,700 stores, some of which it acquired from Rite Aid in a deal that the two companies completed in 2018.
Rite Aid is one of several store chains closing locations this year, alongside Family Dollar and Conn's.
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