Rite Aid has closed all of its stores in Michigan and Ohio, meaning tens of thousands of customers need to find new pharmacies.
The pharmacy’s latest bankruptcy court filings show it has now completely severed all ties with the two Midwestern states.
Rite Aid had more than 2,000 stores before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023 as it struggled with mounting debt.
Shortly afterwards, bosses announced the initial closure of 154 cases. Since then, a steady stream of submissions has brought the closures to 856, DailyMail.com analysis shows.
The latest closures (74 so far in August) occurred in the two Midwestern states, with the exception of one each in California and Washington. That adds to the 169 in July, all in Ohio and Michigan.
Less than a year ago, the two states ranked fourth and fifth in the U.S. for the number of Rite Aid stores. Now, all 234 in Michigan and 183 in Ohio have closed or will soon.
Rite Aid has faced a number of challenges.
Pharmacies in general are struggling to compete with large chains and Amazon, which launched its own online-only pharmacy in 2020.
On top of that, Rite Aid faced a series of lawsuits. accusing the company of over-prescribing opioids.
The most recent closures occurred in filings dated July 29, August 2, 5 and 9.
Experts believe Rite Aid is moving out of areas where it can’t compete with much larger chains like CVS and Walgreens, which also owns Duane Reade.
Instead, he’s focusing on where he can aspire to be number two, behind one or the other, like in Pennsylvania.
It’s unclear when Rite Aid will emerge from bankruptcy, but it plans to return with about 1,300 stores in total, a far cry from when In 2008 it operated 5,059 establishments..
“Rite Aid hopes to get back on a solid financial footing, although it will emerge from bankruptcy as a much smaller business with far fewer stores,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told DailyMail.com.
DailyMail.com reached out to Rite Aid for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Rite Aid confirmed to DailyMail.com that it would close all of its Michigan locations and nearly all of its Ohio locations.
“Rite Aid regularly evaluates its retail footprint to ensure we are operating efficiently while meeting the needs of our customers, communities, associates and the business as a whole,” the company said in a statement.
‘While we have had to make difficult business decisions over the past several months to improve our business and optimize our retail presence, we are committed to achieving financial and operational health.’
Walgreens, the second-largest U.S. drugstore behind CVS, is grappling with its own financial problems and announced last month it would close a “significant” number of its 8,700 U.S. stores.
The widespread “retail apocalypse” that has seen brick-and-mortar stores struggle to combat rampant theft and ever-shrinking margins is certainly not limited to pharmacies.
There were almost 2,600 store closures in the first four months of 2024If this trend continues, almost 8,000 people will have been lost by the end of the year.
After filing for bankruptcy protection last October, Rite Aid announced it would initially close 154 underperforming retail locations in more than a dozen states. Over the past nine months, it has closed 618 more locations.
Three people browse the empty shelves of a Brooklyn Rite Aid in August 2023, months before it filed for bankruptcy.
A woman browses the shelves of a Rite Aid supermarket in Alhambra, California, on Oct. 18, 2023. The store was scheduled to close within days after announcing bankruptcy on Oct. 15.
Rite Aid was once the nation’s third-largest pharmacy chain, with more than 5,000 stores across the United States. After bankruptcy, that number could drop to as few as 1,300.
In recent months, Walmart has closed three more underperforming stores. Best Buy closed ten. in March.
Dollar stores have also been hit hard: 99 Cents Only announced in April that it would close all 371 of its stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
The 1,000 closures of Family Dollar and its sister company Dollar Tree will occur in the next three years.
Express, a mall staple, filed for bankruptcy in April and said it would close 95 Express locations along with all of its UpWest stores.
In early May, Rue21, the teen fashion chain that is a fixture in malls across the United States, also said it will close all 543 of its U.S. stores after going bankrupt.
Badcock Home Furniture & More said in late July that it would close its 380 stores across the South after filing for bankruptcy earlier this year.
And last week, news broke that Big Lots is closing 315 stores in several states as its financial problems worsen.