Pharmacy chain closing 114 more stores across multiple states

Rite Aid, which filed for bankruptcy protection twice in less than two years, is shuttering dozens of additional stores from its existing portfolio.

A bankruptcy court in New Jersey approved an order earlier this month allowing Rite Aid to move forward with plans to close 114 additional stores and sell its assets as part of its second bankruptcy proceedings.

The closures are taking place in Pennsylvania, California, New York, Washington, New Jersey, Maryland, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, Idaho and Ohio, according to a filing with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. However, the majority of the closures are concentrated in Pennsylvania.

FAMILY-OWNED PHARMACY CLOSES ITS DOORS AFTER MORE THAN 100 YEARS IN BUSINESS

Rite Aid announced Chapter 11 proceedings in May, only eight months after exiting its first bankruptcy protection.

The pharmacy chain was driven to file for protection in 2023 due to mounting debt and sluggish sales from heightened competition coupled with hundreds of lawsuits connected to its role in the opioid crisis. Rite Aid quickly initiated a store optimization plan that involved immediately closing 154 of its 2,284 stores.

Over the course of the restructuring, Rite Aid closed hundreds of additional stores, leaving it with a footprint of about 1,245 locations by the time of its subsequent bankruptcy filing.

Its first restructuring reduced the U.S. pharmacy chain’s debt, although it still had $2.5 billion in liabilities when it emerged as a private company owned by its lenders in 2024. The company also failed to address its long-term business challenges of inflationary pressures and increased competition by pharmacy chains Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and Amazon.

FOX Business reached out to Rite Aid for comment.

WHY NEIGHBORHOOD PHARMACIES ARE CLOSING

George Hill, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Deutsche Bank, previously told FOX Business that the closures across the entire industry in recent years haven’t surprised industry experts, who anticipate more shutdowns as the industry adjusts and rightsizes itself.

Hill said that the “industry seemed to be growing footprints and locations kind of faster than the need for pharmacies was growing.”

If compounded with “company-specific mistakes that have been made as it relates to how they spend money and how they spend cash and how they grow and how they build, it leads companies to the position that CVS and Walgreens and Rite Aid are in,” he added.