Rite Aid has sold the pharmacy services of more than 1,000 locations across the country to competing chains — including longtime archrivals CVS and Walgreens.
In addition to the No. 1 and No. 1 drugstore chains, competitors including Albertsons, Kroger and Giant Eagle snapped up several locations from the struggling drugstore chain, which earlier this month filed for bankruptcy for the second time in two years.
“These agreements ensure our pharmacy customers will experience a smooth transition while preserving jobs for some of our valued team members,” Rite Aid CEO Matt Schroeder said in a statement on Thursday.
CVS came away with the largest number of acquisitions, set to take over 625 Rite Aid pharmacies across 15 states, as well as 64 Rite Aid stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
The deals await approval from the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.
In the meantime, Rite Aid said its stores and pharmacy services will remain open, so customers can continue picking up their prescription refills and scheduling vaccines.
The Pennsylvania-based chain’s bankruptcy filing earlier this month came less than a year after it exited its previous Chapter 11 process, emerging as a private company.
Rite Aid first filed for bankruptcy in October 2023.
Like many other pharmacies, it fell victim to shifts in consumer habits, with more customers refilling their prescriptions online and skipping the extra purchases made throughout the rest of the drug store.
Drugstores have also complained that their prescription businesses have grown less profitable as pharmacy benefit managers cut reimbursement rates.
PBMs have argued that they help keep drug prices down.
Rite Aid also saw its debt jump to nearly $4 billion following legal challenges and a multi-million dollar settlement with the US government over claims its pharmacies filled unnecessary prescriptions for addictive opioids.
The company has about 1,240 stores remaining across the country – just about half what it operated two years ago, and it’s set to shutter nearly 10% of these remaining locations as part of the bankruptcy process.
It has told employees it will cut jobs after failing to secure additional financing from lenders, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.
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