Rite Aid to close more than 300 stores after filing for bankruptcy

NEW YORK (WABC) -- After announcing it would close more than 100 stores, Rite Aid is now closing an additional 300 stores.

The drug store operates about 1,200 stores, which is about 50% fewer than two years ago.

Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier in May.

Also this month, Rite Aid sold most of its pharmacy services to rivals CVS, Albertsons, Kroger, and Walgreens.

What will happen to my prescription records?

Rite Aid will try to sell them to another drugstore, grocer or retailer with a pharmacy. The company says it is working to put together a "smooth transfer" of customer prescriptions to other pharmacies.

But there's no guarantee those files will wind up at a retailer near the location that is closing.

That may be challenging because some Rite Aid stores are in rural areas, miles away from another pharmacy, noted Saunders, managing director of the consulting and data analysis firm GlobalData.

Prescription files can be valuable assets because they can connect the acquiring drugstore with a regular customer if that person sticks with the new store.

How did Rite Aid get to this point?

Philadelphia-based Rite Aid had been closing stores and struggling with losses for years before its first bankruptcy filing in 2023. The company says its "only viable path forward" is a return to Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

The company said in letter to vendors that it has been hit with several financial challenges that have grown more intense.

Rite Aid and its competitors have been dealing with tighter profits on their prescriptions, increased theft, court settlements over opioid prescriptions and customers who are drifting to online shopping and discount retailers.

Walgreens, which has more than six times as many stores as Rite Aid, agreed in March to be acquired by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

CVS Health also has closed stores.

The Associated Press and CNN Wire contributed to this report.