• crandlecan@mander.xyz
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    4 days ago

    Rite Aid previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023, which allowed it to cut $2 billion in debt and close hundreds of stores.

    And not a word on HOW THE FRACK they were 2B in debt!!!

    • Stillwater@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago
      1. Amazon and Target (and other competitors) took a lot of their business.
      2. They were dealing with a ton of expensive lawsuits related to prescribing illegal opioids
      3. Various economic factors including inflation
      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Also just a bad business model as well, trying to be a shittier more expensive Walmart or Target is pretty stupid. If it was just the pharmacy, food, and maybe clothes if they were cheap the business would’ve probably done better.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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            3 days ago

            Pretty much yeah, there’s a reason why some of the last independent stores are convenience stores. It’s because they’re relatively cheap to operate and you don’t need a particularly large customer base to maintain profitablity, frankly speaking the problem they usually run into is zoning regulations and not being more mixed into residential.

            • nosuchanon@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              I’m pretty sure there’s a Rite Aid near where I am and it’s almost always closed. The only other option is the CVS that’s in Hannaford. Another 35 minute drive in the opposite direction to Walmart. 45 minute drive in the other direction to a CVS.

    • nosuchanon@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Private Equity?

      In 2025, Rite Aid emerged from its Chapter 11 restructuring with a significantly leaner operation and a new owner: a consortium led by Cigna’s Evernorth health services division and the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R).

      Evernorth, Cigna’s health services arm, had long been eyeing Rite Aid’s Elixir PBM. Elixir, while facing challenges, possessed a significant book of business and a valuable infrastructure.

      This wasn’t simply about a larger company swallowing a smaller one; it was about strategically dismantling and repurposing Rite Aid’s assets to maximize value and ensure the survival of its core pharmacy business.

      So yeah, they bought the part of the business they give a shit about and are systematically closing the rest of the business, a.k.a. brick and mortar stores.

      Private equity don’t really give a shit about that fixing any lthing. So they print a bunch of corporate word salad mumbo-jumbo about how they’re gonna fix shit and when it doesn’t work out, they’re like yep we got the money that we want and the business part that is valuable. Fuck the rest of it. Who cares if there’s another food desert, or whatever the medical equivalent is, and all the rural towns at the rely on these pharmacies for medication.

      I guess Walmart pharmacy wins by default.

        • nosuchanon@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Years of accumulating debt, competition from larger chains like CVS and Walgreens, and costly opioid lawsuits had pushed Rite Aid to the brink.

          https://tinygrab.com/who-bought-rite-aid-in-2025/

          Yes they had debt before, that’s why they went bankrupt in the first place. Now they are going bankrupt because private equity decided to buy the business and sell off what they don’t want.

    • lettruthout@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Weren’t the subject of a leveraged buyout mugging deal a while back? That might explain the high debt load.