Bankrupt Rite Aid to Market 1,300 Stores

After filing for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy in two years, Rite Aid shoved 1,245 drug stores into the market, including 59 in Los Angeles County.

The Philadelphia-based pharmacy chain is marketing its leased and owned stores after the firm announced it is “pursuing a strategic and value-maximizing sale process for substantially all of its assets,” L.A. Business First reported.

The company runs 1,245 stores in 15 states, according to its website. It has a heavy presence in New York, Pennsylvania and California, which alone has 347 locations, the Associated Press reported.

A&G Real Estate Partners, appointed by the court to market the properties, sent out an email marketing 1,194 leased Rite Aid store locations and 50 stores owned by the retailer.

The stores are either available for sale or through purchase of lease terms.

Erik Potocek, an executive with A&G Real Estate, based on New York’s Long Island, called the coming sale of the Rite Aid stores “a very fluid sales process.”

His firm expects to sell store lease commitments to other retailers, or as lease terminations to established landlords. Stores the company owns would sell for the highest and best offers.

Of the hundreds of stores on the block in California, 59 are in L.A. County, from Calabasas to Santa Clarita, from Pomona to Whittier.

Herky Pollock, CEO of Foster City-based Legacy Realty Partners, couldn’t recall a similar wave of available stores.

“I can’t recall anything of this magnitude for stores of this size,” he told L.A. Business First. “It’s an awful lot to digest.”

Rite Aid customers can expect their local store to close or change ownership in the next few months, according to the AP.

The company plans to sell customer prescription files, inventory and other assets as it closes distribution centers and unloads stores, which will remain open for now. Since the company isn’t buying new inventory, bare shelves are likely to become more common.

“I think what we’ll progressively see is the stores will become more and more spartan,” retail analyst Neil Saunders at GlobalData Retail told the AP.

— Dana Bartholomew