HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Rite Aid emerged from bankruptcy Tuesday, nearly 11 months after it filed for Chapter 11 protection and after closing about 780 stores, which was more than most analysts expected.
But the state-by-state impact varied dramatically. Pennsylvania, Rite Aid’s headquarter state and largest market by number of stores, fared better than other large Rite Aid markets, with about one in five pre-bankruptcy Rite Aid stores now shuttered, according to an abc27 analysis of Scrapehero data.
California and New York, now the chains second- and third-largest markets, remained relatively unscathed too, according to the analysis, with 22% and 24% of stores closed, respectively. By contrast, the chain has closed all of its Michigan and all but four of its Ohio stores, it confirmed Wednesday, continuing a pivot Rite Aid began early this summer away from roughly even numbers of store closings across its markets, in favor of closing more stores where experts said it couldn’t compete for at least a strong No. 2 position against its larger competitors, CVS and Walgreens.