{"id":3706,"date":"2014-04-11T08:52:45","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T08:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom.chainstoreguide.com\/?p=3706"},"modified":"2014-04-11T08:52:45","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T08:52:45","slug":"off-the-respirator-rite-aid-healthy-once-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2014\/04\/off-the-respirator-rite-aid-healthy-once-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Respirator \u2013 Rite Aid Healthy Once Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not so long ago, Rite Aid was thought to be a dead company walking. Its stock had dipped below $1 a share by late 2012 and the company was drowning in debt. Rite Aid today is in considerably better condition financially as well as operationally. Last summer in this space<\/a>, I wrote about the country\u2019s third largest drugstore chain posting three consecutive quarters of positive earnings after 21 straight losses. Based on its fiscal 2014 results, the vast majority of problems that have plagued the company now seem to be in the distant past.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today; Rite Aid has posted six straight quarterly profits. Fiscal 2014 revenue increased 0.5 percent as a result of same store sales increases, according to the company, while the outlook for fiscal 2015 is even more optimistic.\u00a0 Of equal importance, Rite Aid announced that it has acquired RediClinic, a retail clinic operator which runs 30 locations at grocery stores in Texas. \u00a0Plans call for approximately 70 new RediClinic locations over the next few years.<\/p>\n

The retail clinic business is an important one for Rite Aid. As its largest competitors Walgreens and CVS Caremark have been aggressively building their retail clinic networks, Rite Aid has been focused on closing underperforming stores, strengthening its base of core locations, and reducing debt from the seven year old Brooks\/Eckerd acquisition. The RediClinic purchase is a necessary step in the right direction for the company.<\/p>\n

For its existing store base, Rite Aid has been installing its new \u2018wellness\u2019 theme format since 2011. These stores feature an updated interior layout, new healthy food offerings, and an enhanced pharmacy department with smoking cessation centers as well as a GNC \u2018store-within-a-store.\u2019 Store employees used iPads to look up product information, coupons, or enroll customers in benefit programs. According to the company, there are now 1,215 wellness stores within the Rite Aid store fleet of 4,600.<\/p>\n

Rite Aid operates large amounts of locations in a number of the top metro core-based statistical areas (CBSA) in the country while also holding key prescription market share positions.<\/p>\n

Top 10 Rite Aid Metro CBSA*<\/span><\/strong>
\nRanked by Area Stores<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Metro CBSA<\/strong><\/td>\n\n

Area Stores<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Area RX Market Share<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

NEW YORK-NORTHERN NEW JERSEY-LONG ISLAND, NY-NJ-PA<\/td>\n\n

426<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

15.7%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

PHILADELPHIA-CAMDEN-WILMINGTON, PA-NJ-DE-MD<\/td>\n\n

271<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

25.2%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

LOS ANGELES-LONG BEACH-SANTA ANA, CA<\/td>\n\n

186<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

14.0%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

PITTSBURGH, PA<\/td>\n\n

133<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

29.6%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

DETROIT-WARREN-LIVONIA, MI<\/td>\n\n

117<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

13.1%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

BOSTON-CAMBRIDGE-QUINCY, MA-NH<\/td>\n\n

105<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

12.0%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

ATLANTA-SANDY SPRINGS-MARIETTA, GA<\/td>\n\n

102<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

10.7%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

BALTIMORE-TOWSON, MD<\/td>\n\n

92<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

20.0%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

WASHINGTON-ARLINGTON-ALEXANDRIA, DC-VA-MD-WV<\/td>\n\n

82<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

8.0%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

RIVERSIDE-SAN BERNARDINO-ONTARIO, CA<\/td>\n\n

77<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

16.5%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

*Source: Chain Store Guide 2013 Drug Industry Market Share Report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not so long ago, Rite Aid was thought to be a dead company walking. Its stock had dipped below $1 a share by late 2012 and the company was drowning in debt. Rite Aid today is in considerably better condition financially as well as operationally. Last summer in this space, I wrote about the country\u2019s… Continue reading Off the Respirator \u2013 Rite Aid Healthy Once Again<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-3706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drug-hbc","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}