From
Seattle Times business reporter
After filing for bankruptcy on Sunday, Rite Aid court filings showed Tuesday that the struggling drugstore chain plans to close 154 locations, or 7% of its portfolio, nationwide, including 11 in Washington.
Rite Aid confirmed Thursday that of the 11 Washington locations on the list, six Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs stores will close next month; The other five closed last month.
The six stores scheduled to close in November are two Rite Aid locations in Mill Creek and Everett and four Bartell Drugs locations in Redmond, Bellevue and Lynnwood.
The five that have already closed include four Rite Aid stores in Renton; Burien; Graham, Pierce County; and Lacey, Thurston County; and a Bartell Drugs in Seattle. Following these 11 closures, Rite Aid will only have 53 Bartell stores and 30 Rite Aid locations in the greater Seattle area.
Washington had 67 Bartell Drugs stores when Rite Aid bought the chain for $95 million in 2020.
A filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid has $3.78 billion in total debt and $330 million in “charges related to the closure of.” Investments and depreciation”. The company’s quarterly loss was about $1 billion.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy is intended to restructure Rite Aid, which is struggling with competition from larger CVS and Walgreens and facing costly opioid-related litigation. According to some analysts, Rite Aid could either sell its pharmacy business or try to raise money by closing underperforming locations.
“There are actually two options: Do they sell their current pharmacy? [business] to another pharmacy, and the new pharmacy just rebrands it in their name, or does Rite Aid just shut down and just sell its physical real estate?” That’s what Arun Sundaram, senior analyst at CFRA Research, said Monday.
The stores scheduled to close are:
- 10103 Evergreen Way, Everett (Rite Aid) will close November 6th.
- 3620 Factoria Blvd. SE, Bellevue (Bartell Drugs) will close November 9th.
- 3202 132nd St. SE, Mill Creek (Rite Aid) will close November 12th.
- 7370 170th Ave. NE, Redmond (Bartell Drugs) will close November 12th.
- 2518 196th St. SW, Lynnwood (Bartell Drugs) will close November 14th.
- 11919 NE Eighth St., Bellevue (Bartell Drugs) will close November 16th.