Rite Aid Pharmacy
After marrying into the Lehrman family in the early 1950’s, Alex Grass founded the Rite Aid chain in Scranton, Pennsylvania in September 1962. The first store was called Thrift D Discount Center.The store expanded into five additional states in 1965 and went public as Rite Aid in 1968. It moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1970 and is ranked as one of Fortune 500’s largest U.S. corporations.
Rite-Aid at a Glance
Rite Aid is the largest pharmacy on the east coast of the United States and the third largest on the west coast.
In 1994, Rite Aid acquired the 224-store Perry chain and the 1,000-store West Coast chain, with Thrifty PayLess being acquired in 1996.
In 2015, Rite Aid purchased Envision Rx, a pharmacy benefit manager which owns subsidiary PBMs MetTrak, Connect Health Solutions and Smith Premier Services.
Saying “good-bye” to Rite Aid
In September of 2017, Walgreens bought 1,932 Rite Aid stores. The purchase came after a two-year-long battle with federal regulators who finally agreed to a selling price of $4.4 billion. The deal leaves Rite Aid with just over 2,600 stores. The Rite Aid pharmacies that Walgreens owns will eventually be rebranded as Walgreens stores.
On March 5, 2018, Rite Aid Corporation provided an update on the progress of its plans to sell stores to Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. The sale would include the remaining 2,600 stores not previously acquired by Walgreens, in a merger of equals, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. Also included in the sale will be the merchandise and three distribution centers.
Gloria Sauve
Communications and Marketing